288 MOSTLY MAMMALS 



with in the interior of Alaska, more commonly in the frozen 

 cliffs of Eschscholtz Bay, and also in the ice-bound soil of 

 the Lena and the Yenisei valleys. Although unknown in 

 Franz Josef Land and Spitzbergen, the musk-ox extends 

 polewards through Parry Island and Grinnell Land into 

 North Greenland, where its northward range is probably 

 only limited by the limits of vegetation. South Greenland 

 at the present day is, however, too hot for such a cold- 

 loving beast, and Melville Bay now forms the southernmost 

 point to which it wanders on the west coast. Consequently 

 it would seem probable that the musk-oxen on the west coast 

 are completely isolated from those on the eastern seaboard ; 

 the central mountain range of the interior of Greenland 

 being apparently impassable even by such hardy animals, 

 while a transit vid Cape Farewell is, as we have seen, 

 barred by climatic conditions of an opposite nature. 



In America, however, the musk-ox still ranges consider- 

 ably farther south, its limits in this direction being 

 approximately formed by the sixtieth parallel of north 

 latitude ; but it is stated that year by year its southern 

 range is slowly contracting — possibly owing to pursuit by 

 man. When the musk-ox ceased to be an inhabitant of 

 the Siberian tundra, or why it should ever have disappeared 

 from regions apparently so well suited to its habits as are 

 Northern Asia and Alaska, there are no means of ascer- 

 taining. But the date of its disappearance was probably 

 by no means remote, comparatively speaking, and it is 

 even possible that man himself may have taken a share 

 in its extermination. However this may be, it is beyond 

 doubt that the musk-ox was an inhabitant of the south 

 of England, as well as of parts of France and Germany, 

 during or about the time of the glacial epoch ; its remains 

 occurring not uncommonly in the gravels of the English 



