MUSK-OX. 



209 



Distribution. 



The range of the musk-ox in Arctic America is limited to the 

 southward by the 60th degree of latitude, but extends northwards to 

 the 83rd degree in Grinnell Land. It abounds on both the east and west coasts of 

 Greenland, and in Arctic America its range is bounded to the eastward by the 

 Mackenzie River, flowing from the Great Slave lake in about longitude 67° 30', 

 while westwards it extends nearly to the Pacific. In former years the range of 

 the animal reached considerably farther south, it having been found, in the year 

 1770, near Fort Churchill, on the west coast of Hudson Bay, in latitude 58° 44'. 



the musk-ox (^ uat. size). 



In prehistoric or Pleistocene time the musk-ox also ranged to the north- west into 

 Alaska, its fossilised remains having been found in the frozen soil of Kotzebue 

 Sound in Behring Strait, and also in the upper part of the Porcupine River in 

 Canada. At a still earlier period — probably when the whole of North America 

 was far colder than at present — the musk-ox ranged as far south as Kansas and 

 Kentucky, where its remains have been found between the 35th and 40th 

 parallels of latitude. The remains from these localities have, however, been regarded 

 as indicating an extinct species. Passing eastwards from Alaska across Behring 

 Strait into Asia, musk-ox bones are found in the frozen soil of Siberia, as far east- 

 wards as the Obi River. The animal doubtless once ranged right across Russia, 

 since there is evidence of its former existence in Germany as far south as Wiirtem- 

 vol. 11. — 14 



