136 
A JOURNEY TO THE 
1771. ground, andare feldom found at any great diftance 
July. 
from the woods. Though they are a beaft of great 
magnitude, and apparently of a very unwieldy in- 
active ftructure, yet they climb the rocks with 
great eafe and agility, and are nearly as fure- 
footed as a goat: like it too, they will feed on 
any thing; though they feem fondeft of grafs, 
yet in Winter, when that article cannot be had 
in fufficient quantity, they will eat mofs, or any 
other herbage they can find, as alfo the tops of 
willows and the tender branches of the pine tree. 
They take the bull in Auguft, and bring forth 
their young the latter end of May, or beginning 
of June; and they never have more than one at 
a time. 
‘The mufk-ox, when full grown, is as large as 
the generality, or at leaft as the middling fize, of 
Englifh black cattle*; but their legs, though large, 
are not fo long; nor is their tail longer than that 
of 
* Mr. Dragge fays, in his voyage, vol. ii. p. 260, that the mufk-ox is 
lower than a deer, but larger as to belly and quarters; which is very far 
from the truth ; they are of the fize I have here defcribed them, and the 
Indian always eftimate the flefh of a full-grown cow to be equal in quan- 
tity to three deer. Iam forry alfo to be obliged to contradict my friend 
Mr. Graham, who fays that the flefh of this animal is carried on fledges to 
Prince of Wales’s Fort, to the amount of three or four thoufand pounds an- 
nually. To the amount of near one thoufand pounds may have been 
purchaféd from the natives in fome particular years, but it more frequent- 
ly happens that not an ounce is brought one year out of five. In faét, it 
is by no means efteemed by the company’s fervants, and of courfe no 
great encouragement is given to introduce it; but if it had been otherwife, 
their general fituation is fo remote trom the fettlement, that it would not 
be worth the Indians while to haul it to the Fort, So that in fas, all that 
has ever been carried to Prince of Wales’s Fort, has moft affuredly been 
killed out of a herd that has been accidentally found within a moderate 
diftance of the fettlement; perhaps an hundred miles, which is only 
thought a ftep by an Indian. 
