106 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS 



the Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural 

 History. 1 



The first living musk oxen in England since 

 the Glacial Epoch consisted of two calves 

 which had been taken by a Swedish expedition 

 on Clavering Island, off Eastern Greenland, 

 on August 1 6, 1899. About the size of retriever 

 dogs on their arrival in England, they were purchased 

 by the Duke of Bedford, and although one soon 

 died, the other lived for several years at Woburn. 

 These animals both had the white forehead and face 

 characteristic of the Greenland race ; the survivor 

 showed at two years old very considerable develop- 

 ment of the horns and of the light-coloured patch on 

 the back. It was figured in Knowledge for June i, 

 1900 ; the horns were just appearing above the long 

 hair of the head, while the comparatively short hair 

 on the flanks allowed the stoutly built pasterns to 

 be seen to great advantage. 



In 1900, some Norwegians achieved remarkable 

 success with the musk ox, no less than fourteen 

 calves being brought over to Europe. Of these, a 

 yearling male was sold in Hamburg for ^65, he 

 having lost a horn on his travels ; five were bought 

 for the collection at Antwerp at ^"50 each, three 

 unfortunately dying before reaching their destination; 



1. The musk ox was the Bos moschatus of Zimmerman (Geograp. 

 Geschichte, 1780). For many years it was so little known that as late as 

 1850 the well-preserved bull in the British collection was the only 

 specimen in any European or American museum ! The anatomy of the 

 soft parts was studied for the first time in 1900. 



