92 CONSERVATION OF CANADIAN WILD LIFE 
lows that the winds lay bare. According to MacFarlane, 
during the severest cold it will, sometimes, enter the northern 
fringe of the forest region to a depth of forty or fifty miles. 
With the advent of spring the thick winter coat is shed and 
the animals wander farther north. Mr. Stefansson believes 
they migrate about five miles per month. He states that 
they seem to be unwilling to cross narrow strips of water, 
and therefore do not migrate from one Arctic island to 
another, as in the case of the caribou. They are gregarious 
in habit and usually live in bands of six to twenty indi- 
viduals, but herds containing as many as one hundred 
animals have been recorded. In these bands there are 
usually but few males; Mr. Stefansson counted 114 ani- 
mals in a single herd on Melville Island. In spite of their 
heavy and ungainly appearance and the shortness of their 
legs, they run with considerable speed. When alarmed 
they show their sheep-like habits. The herd collects to- 
gether, forming a circle around the calves, the larger animals 
facing with their formidable-looking horns the source of 
danger. In this manner they are usually able to withstand 
the attacks of wolves, but the Eskimos take advantage of 
this habit and surround the herd, from which, as a rule, 
not a member escapes, the whole herd being killed (Plate 
VI). This reckless slaughter, sometimes imitated by white 
men, has been the cause of the reduction of the musk-ox 
to the alarmingly small numbers in which they exist to-day. 
When they are able to escape they take to the hills, where 
they are able to ascend precipitous slopes and to traverse 
rocks and crags with astonishing agility, led usually by 
an old bull. The female produces one, rarely two, young 
at the end of May or the beginning of June. Ekblaw (see 
p. 97) records the birth of a musk-ox calf on or about 
April 28, near Cafion Fjord, Ellesmere Island. The flesh 
of a fat musk-ox is said to be excellent, resembling caribou 
somewhat, but coarser in grain. The bulls may attain a 
