THE GAME ANIMALS OF CANADA 97 
mers and one winter, 1915-1916. On this island, he esti- 
mates that there are from 3,000 to 4,000 musk-oxen. Ac- 
cording to the latest reports that he received they appear to 
be extinct on Banks Island, or, if present, are very scarce. 
A few herds were reported from the northeast of Victoria 
Island, but none was reported from Prince Patrick Island. 
He found no musk-oxen on the islands discovered by him, 
nor on the Ringnes Islands. 
At the present time, the chief habitat of the musk-ox in 
Canadian territory appears to be Ellesmere Island. Their 
abundance in that region is shown by Doctor Donald B. 
MacMillan in his account of the Crocker Land Expedition 
of the American Museum of Natural History.* 
In a quotation given by Doctor MacMillan from the 
writings of Sir Clements Markham, it is stated that Elles- 
mere Island ‘‘is called Oo-ming-man (the land of the musk- 
oxen) by the Eskimo.” Mr. W. Elmer Ekblaw, a member 
of the Crocker Land Expedition, made traverses of Elles- 
-mere Island, and in the account of his explorations which 
‘is given in Doctor MacMillan’s interesting narrative, he 
states: 
The west coast of Ellesmere Island in the vicinity of Bay Fjord, is not 
generally so precipitous and bleak as the east coast. It is more maturely 
_ dissected, the valleys are wide, the slopes are less steep and the moun- 
tains do not everywhere rise so abruptly. Large tracts support a rela- 
tively luxuriant growth of willow, sedge and grass, the chief foods of the 
musk-oxen. 
In this place a herd of sixty-seven animais was seen, of 
which fourteen were killed for food. Ekblaw states that the 
excellent condition in which they were found was due, no 
doubt, to the excellent pasturage they found on the grassy 
meadows among the mountains and along the fjord. 
*“¥Four Years in the White North,” by Donald B. MacMillan. Harper 
& Brothers, New York, 1918. 
