On the Musk Ox. 355 



do not now come so far to the southward, even on the Hudson^s 

 Bay shore ; and he adds that farther to the westward they are 

 rarely seen in any numbers lower than lat. 67°, although, from 

 portions of their skulls and horns which are occasionally found 

 near the northern borders of the Great Slave Lake, he thinks it 

 probable that they ranged at no very distant period over the whole 

 country lying between that great sheet of water and the Polar 

 Sea. He had not heard of their having been seen on the banks 

 of Mackenzie's River to the southward of Great Bear Lake, and 

 he states that they do not come to the south-western end of that 

 lake, although they existed in numbers on its north-eastern arm. 

 " They range," continues he, " over the islands which lie to the 

 north of the American continent, so far as Melville Island, in lat. 

 7o°, but they do not, like the rein-deer, extend to Greenland, 

 Spitzbergen, or Lapland. From Lidian information we learn that 

 to the westward of the Rocky Mountains, which skirt the Mac- 

 Kenzie, there is an extensive tract of barren country, which is also 

 inhabited by the musk ox and reindeer. It is to the Russian 

 traders that we must look for information on this head ; but it is 

 probable that, owing to the greater mildness of the climate to the 

 westward of the Rocky Mountains the musk ox, which affects a cold 

 barren district, where grass is replaced by lichens, does not range 

 so far to the southward on the Pacific coast as it does on the shores 

 of Hudson's Bay. It is not known in New Caledonia, nor on the 

 banks of the Columbia, nor is it found on the Rocky Mountain 

 ridge at the usual crossing places near the sources of the Peace, 

 Elk, and Saskatchewan Rivers. It is therefore fair to conclude 

 that the animal described by Fathers Marco de Niga and Gomara 

 as an inhabitant of New Mexico, and which Pennant refers to the 

 musk ox, is of a different species. The musk ox has not crossed 

 over to the Asiatic shore, and does not exist in Siberia, although 

 fossil skulls have been found there of a species nearly allied, 

 which has been enumerated in systematic works under the name 

 of Ouibos Pallantis. The appearance of musk oxen on Melville 

 Island in the month of May, as ascertained on Captain Parry's 

 first voyage, is interesting, not merely as a part of their natural 

 history, but as giving us reason to infer that a chain of islands 

 lies between Melville Island and Cape Lyon, or that Wollaston 

 and Banks' Lands form one great island, over which the migra- 

 tions of the animals must have been performed. The districts 

 inhabited by the musk ox are the proper lands of the Esquimaux ; 



