CHAPTER XVII 



MUSK-OXEN AT LAST 



ON the next march we had gone only some six 

 or seven miles when, rounding a point on 

 the eastern shore of the Inlet, we saw black 

 dots on a distant hillside. 



" Oomingmuksue! " said Ooblooyah, excitedly, and 

 I nodded to him, well pleased. 



To the experienced hunter, with one or two dogs, 

 seeing musk-oxen should be equivalent to securing them. 

 There may be traveling over the roughest kind of 

 rough country, with wind in the face and cold in the 

 blood; but the end should always be the trophies of 

 hides, horns, and juicy meat. 



For myself, I never associate the idea of sport 

 with musk-oxen — too often in the years gone by 

 the sighting of those black forms has meant the differ- 

 ence between life and death. In 1899, in Independence 

 Bay, the finding of a herd of musk-oxen saved the lives 

 of my entire party. On my way back from 87° 6', 

 in 1906, if we had not found musk-oxen on Nares 

 Land, the bones of my party might now be bleaching 

 up there in the great white waste. 



When we saw the significant black dots in the 

 distance, we headed for them. There were five close 

 together, and another a little way off. When we got 

 within less than a mile, two of the dogs were loosed. 



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