146 Musk-Oxen 



base of the Plistocene deposits, and antedating the glacial epoch. A 

 second specimen, described by the same author and preserved in the 

 Woodwardian Museum at Cambridge, is believed to have had a similar 

 origin, although dredged from the bed of the North Sea. 



Habits. — The musk-ox has, I believe, never been brought alive to 

 Europe, and indeed would probably be unable to withstand transportation 

 from its icy home to more genial climates ; naturalists are therefore 

 compelled to rely exclusively on the accounts of its habits given by 

 explorers and sportsmen, like Colonel Feilden and Mr. Warburton Pike, 

 who have seen the animal in its native haunts. Musk-oxen associate in 

 herds numbering from about twentv or thirtv to as manv as eightv or a 

 hundred head. The herds appear to be largest in winter, the big bulls 

 during the summer being for the most part solitarv, and the herds 

 consisting of cows and calves which go about in small bands of from ten to 

 twenty. The movements of the herds are described by Colonel Feilden as 

 very sheep-like, the old bulls, when present, taking the lead, and the whole 

 assemblage crowding together when alarmed, much after the manner of a 

 flock ot sheep. The single calt is produced in May or fune, and the cows 

 are reported by the natives to breed only once in two years, so that the 

 rate of increase is slow. In summer their food, according to Mr. Pike, con- 

 sists almost exclusively of the leaves of the small willows scattered here and 

 there over the Barren Grounds ; hut grass, moss, and lichens are also largely 

 consumed, and in winter these two last, with perhaps bark, must form the 

 sole nutriment. To obtain lichens and moss the snow is scraped away to 

 a great extent by the hoots, which trom their shape are admirably adapted 

 tor this purpose, as they are for climbing rocky ridges. The horns are, 

 however, also said to be brought into use for clearing away snow. By the 

 end ot the short northern summer musk-oxen have generally fed themselves 

 up into prime condition, but in April, when thev are flrst hunted by the 

 natives of the Barren Grounds, they are miserably thin. Although it has 



