304 THE MUSK OX. 



more kinds of a small rodent, called the lemming 

 (My odes Torquattis], a mouse (Mus. Musculus], the marten 

 (Mustala Erminea), and the snow fox ( Vulpes Lagopus}. 

 There are also the three larger animals already 

 referred to, which are inhabitants of the Arctic 

 Zone, namely the musk ox, the reindeer, and the 

 polar bear, also in some places a few wolves; but 

 these larger animals do not as a rule winter in 

 the higher latitudes. The white bear for instance 

 usually keeps on the edge of the polar ice, in 

 the neighbourhood of open water, as it lives mainly 

 upon seals, and other food obtained from the sea ; and, 

 in the opinion of Sir George Nares, rarely leaves its 

 hunting fields, in Baffin's Bay; and never enters the 

 polar basin through Robeson Channel. * 



These animals are still seen in considerable numbers 

 in some parts of the Arctic Zone ; and in our sections 

 devoted to shooting some details with reference to 

 the sport of polar bear hunting will be found, which 

 we trust may prove of interest ; though as a truly 

 arctic animal, a denizen of the far north, for the pur- 

 poses of the present section, the white bear possesses 

 fewer features of zoological interest than other habitants 

 of the polar basin. 



The musk ox ( Ovibos Moschatus), one of these creatures, 

 though it must be classed among the fauna of the polar 

 regions, generally descends during winter to the neigh- 

 bourhood of the arctic circle, where there are woods, and 

 other places in which food is plentiful ; nevertheless herds 

 of these curious animals are sometimes met with by arc- 

 tic explorers, which have evidently wintered in very 

 far northern situations, where it is difficult to conceive 



* Arctic Voyage,\)y Captain Sir George Nares, R.N., 1878, Vol. ii,p. 195. 



