DOMESTICATION OF RUMINATING MAMMALS 3t1 
acteristics which suggest its possible value as a domesticated, 
or semi-domesticated animal, but which has not yet been 
tried in the service of man except as a source of wild meat, 
and this is the musk-ox. Doctor W. T. Hornaday has called 
my attention to one attempt to colonize this animal on new 
territory, which took place in July, 1903, when three musk-ox 
calves, two females and one male, were transported from 
Greenland and turned loose at Norrland, Sweden, in a lo- 
cality closely resembling their native habitat, but they all 
died. The first suggestion regarding the possible domesti- 
cation of the musk-ox appears to have been made by Pro- 
fessor 8S. F. Baird, in 1854, in an article on the native rumi- 
nating animals of North America and their susceptibility 
to domestication.* He wrote: 
It is not probable that the musk-ox could stand the warmth of the 
climate of the United States, although the experiment would be well 
worth trying. The hair is very long and silky, and has been occasionally 
worked into articles of dress. Could it be obtained in sufficient quan- 
tity, there is no doubt of its being of exceedingly great value in the arts. 
Unfortunately, this species, like the barren-ground reindeer, does not oc- 
cur within the limits of the United States, and the experiment of domes- 
tication, as well as of economical application in general, must be tried, 
if at all, by the Hudson’s Bay Company. To the best of our knowledge, 
there is not a single specimen of the musk-ox in any museum of the 
United States; probably not even a portion of the skin or bone. 
A definite proposal, however, to utilize the musk-ox as a 
domestic animal was made by Mr. V. Stefansson, in 1916, 
as a result of his observations on the habits and value of the 
musk-ox in Melville Island. This proposal was embodied 
in a report to the Department of the Naval Service, and 
Mr. Stefansson has revised for me his statement since his 
return from the Canadian Arctic Expedition in 1918. The 
following is Mr. Stefansson’s report: 
* “Pictorial Geography of the World,” by E. 8. Goodrich, vol. II, pp. 39-40. 
