MUSK OX.—Gvibos moschétus 
the sides of the forehead, and are simply curved. Tlie muzzle is covered with hair, with 
the exception of a very slight line round the nostrils. 
This animal is an inhabitant of the extreme north of America, being seldom seen 
south of the sixty-tirst deeree of latitude, and ascending as high as the seventy-fifth. It 
lives, in fact, in the same country which is inhabited by the Esquimaux, and is known to 
them under the name of Oomingnoak. It is a fleet and active animal, and traverses with 
such ease the rocky and precipitous ground on which it loves to dwell, that it cannot be 
overtaken by any pursuer less swift than an arrow or a bullet. It is rather an irritable 
animal, and becomes a dangerous foe to the hunters, by its habit of charging upon them 
while they are perplexed amid the cliffs and crevices of its rocky home, thus often 
escaping unharmed by the aid of its quiek eye and agile limbs. The hunters say that 
it is rather a stupid animal in some matters, and that it will not run away at the report 
of a eun, provided that it does not see the man who fired it, or perceive the smell of the 
powder. They believe that the Musk Ox takes the flash and the report to be only a 
species of thunder and lightning, and therefore does not think itself obliged to escape. 
The flesh of this animal is very strongly perfumed with a musky odow, very variable in 
its amount and strength. Excepting, however, a few weeks in the year, it is perfectly fit 
for food, and is fat and well flavoured. 
The Musk Ox is a little animal, but owing to the huge mass of woolly hair with which 
it is thickly covered, appears to be of considerable dimensions. ‘The colour of this 
animal is a yellowish-brown, deepening upon the sides. 
