MUSK ox. 253 



the snares of the hunter, for few animals are more 

 fearless, or less easily entrapped. Bounding from 

 rock to rock, descending and ascending with 

 incredible facility those high mural barriers which 

 rise like walls before the hunter, they stand and 

 gaze upon him till nearly within reach, and then 

 in a moment they are gone; the next they ap- 

 pear upon some high ledge, looking calmly down, 

 as if in derision of his attempts to seize them. 

 Captain Parry met this species as far north as Mel- 

 ville's Fort, early in the spring. Most probably, the 

 herd was then migrating in quest of pasturage, for 

 during winter they are obliged to subsist on mo&s, 

 the tops of pine-shoots, and such willows as grow 

 in sheltered places, from which they can shake off 

 the snow. 



We cannot dismiss this portion of our subject 

 without briefly noticing the heads of the fossil ox 

 (0. pallantis)) noticed by Pallas as being fuond 

 on the banks of the Obi, and near Tundra, north of 

 the Arctic circle. Though fossil, they are apparently 

 very recent; and Baron Cuvier admits with Pallas 

 the possibility of their having reached Asia from 

 America on the field-ice. Bears and seals are con- 

 veyed in this manner from one continent to another; 

 they fall asleep on masses of ice, which often begin 

 to move almost instantaneously, impelled either by 

 the wind or currents, and on awaking find them- 

 selves in far distant regions. Nor do they always 

 voyage without provisions; it sometimes happens, 

 during summer, that bears, when wearied with hard 

 fighting, will drag their prey beneath some shelter- 

 ing iceberg, and fall asleep, till the heat of the sun 



