148 Musk-Oxen 



little use in bringing the musk-cattle to bay. . . ■ The musk-ox usually 

 stops when wounded, and shows little inclination to go on ; and, as a rule, 

 they will stand until the last one has been killed, narrowing their circle as 

 their numbers diminish." When attacked by their great enemy the wolf, 

 thev also form a circle, with the calves in the middle, and the lowered 

 heads of the adults facing the enemy. 



In spite of the wholesale slaughter, Mr. Pike is of opinion that even on 

 the mainland the musk-ox stands in little, it any danger of impending 

 extermination. Even on the most frequented hunting-grounds it is still 

 met with in vast numbers, and all these tracts are situated only on the 

 extreme verge of the musk-ox country, which extends to the desolate 

 regions bordering the Arctic Ocean, where only a few Eskimo eke out an 

 existence near the coast. This impenetrable country probablv serves there- 

 fore as a feeder to the hunted districts farther south. 



2. Harlan's Musk-Ox — Ovibos bombifrons {Extinct) 



Bos bombifrons^ Harlan, Fauna Americana^ p. 271 (1825). 



Boot/icriiiin bombifrons, Leidv, Proc. Acad. Pbibniclpbia, vol. vi. p. 71 

 (1852). 



Boot her in ni cavifrons, Leidy, /^r. cit. (1852). 



Ovibos priscns, Riitimeyer, Fiv//. Gcs. B^/jv/, ser. 2, vol. iv. p. 32H (1865). 



Ovibos bombifrons, Dawkins, Qnart. Jonrn. Geo/. Soc. vol. xxxix. p. 577 

 (1883) ; Lydekker, Cat. Foss. Mamm. Brit. Mns. pt. ii. p. 39 (1885). 



Ovibos cavifrons, Dawkins, loc. cit. (188:;) ; Lydekker, op. cit. p. 40 

 (1885) ; M'Gee, Amer. yourn. Science, ser. 3, vol. xxxiv. p. 217 (1887). 



Characters. — Horn-cores of male directed mainly outwards and some- 

 what downwards at the tips, without the close approximation to the sides 

 of the skull characteristic of the existing species ; their bases much less 

 expanded than in the latter, and apparently less approximated in the middle 



