MUSK-OXEN. - 477 



condescended to play with Payer by pretending to carry 

 off his portable table. Older animals stand fire most 

 coolly, even after being wounded, and amuse themselves 

 by defending the most exposed part by putting down 

 their heads, which is their invulnerable part. One of 

 them once received a shot from a Wanzl-gun on his 

 mailed forehead without showing the slightest annoy- 

 ance. The ball fell a flattened disc on to the ground ! 



If a family, or a herd with young ones, are surprised, 

 they either form a square (the young being in the centre, 

 and the old outside, with their heads down), or else the 

 bull, placed as a sentinel, takes to flight, and the others 

 follow closely, the placing of their outposts being 

 astonishing. They are also excellent chmbers. A 

 retreating herd climbed a snow-path at an incline of not 

 less than 45° on a high mountain near our winter har- 

 bour, and to our great astonishment we saw one lookiug 

 down upon us from between the craggy walls of Cape 

 Hamburg.^ At the first shot a herd of approaching rein- 

 deer w411 make a spring and then stand terrified; the 

 next shot, or the fall of one of them, puts them to flight. 

 It costs something thus to dispel their innocent con- 

 fidence. 



Once a reindeer ran hurriedly over the land to a boat 

 that was landing. It stood close to us on the shore, with 

 its head stretched out, and its large soft eyes watching 

 us confidingly. One of us sprang hastily on shore, and 



^ In the beginning of August, 1870, on the top of Cape Franklin, 

 Copelancl observed traces of musk-oxen in the snow at a height of 

 4875 feet above the level of the sea, and on the loth of September 

 Copeland and Wagner saw bear-tracks on the back of the Haseuberg, 

 1950 feet high. 



