MUSK OX 21 



there is no zoology that I could ever find in Keyserling's 

 " Reise nach Petchora Land," so that all ought to be 

 interesting and I trust you will make copious notes for 

 at least a paper in the Ihis, if not for a book. 



It would be well to study carefully the diagnostic 

 characters of Bewick's Swan before you go, so that you 

 may know it from the Hooper through your glass, if 

 you cannot get near enough to shoot it. Curlew Sand- 

 piper with its white rump and red head and neck is 

 unmistakable, but a breeding plumage skin to show the 

 natives would not be a bad thing to take with you.* 



Persons voyaging to Polar Seas were always appealed 

 to by him to bring back specimens for the Museum, and 

 among them was his friend Colonel (then Major) H. W. 

 Feilden, who served on board H.M.S. Alert in Nares' 

 Expedition of 1875-6. 



When the proceeds of the German Arctic Expedition 

 were sold at Bremen some time ago we bought a skeleton 

 of a Musk Ox (bull) supposed to be perfect ; the money 

 was paid and some time elapsed before it was overhauled 

 — ^then we found that the bones of the left metacarpus were 

 wanting ! Can you then among other things secure us 

 an Extra left fore leg of a Musk Bull, if you fall in with 

 any ? N.B. — Anything, I am sure, pertaining to Ovibos — 

 even the dung in a bottle — would be most valuable, as 

 the poor beast is not long for this world. I do wonder 

 if this next month will see you cut the Knotty tangle, f 



The " knotty tangle " was the question of the possible 

 discovery of the hitherto unknown breeding-place of the 

 Knot. Newton had been chaffed by a writer in the 

 Saturday Review because he had suggested that Knots 

 might be found breeding on green meadows near Smith 

 Sound. He begged Feilden to help him out of the scrape, 



* Letter to J. A. Harvie-Brown, March 28, 1874. 

 t Letter to H. W. Feilden, June 21, 1875. 



