MUSK SHEEP AS FOOD. 47 



numerous that the camp of a friend of mine was always 

 well supplied with them for food. Their flesh is excellent 

 and nutritious when fat, but quite the reverse when, by a 

 long protracted winter, they become thin and attenuated. 

 The flavour is much the same as that of venison, although 

 mach coarser in the grain, and is entirely free from any 

 musky odour, except in very old males during the rutting 

 season. The ground which they principally frequent is 

 the same on which is found the small cariboo two species 

 of this genus being accredited to the North American 

 continent immense stretches of rolling, rocky steppes, 

 most sparsely supplied with vegetation, except where an 

 occasional brook winds its solitary course towards some 

 giant river, rnpidly hurrying on its northern course to the 

 Arctic Ocean. Their principal food is the various mosses, 

 the leaves of stunted brush, and the fine velvety grasses 

 that sparsely crop up in wet localities. 



For animals so unwieldy in shape and appearance Musk 

 Sheep are wonderfully nimble, making always for the 

 roughest grounds when pursued, leaping with agility from 

 rock to rock, and scaling the faces of slopes so perpen- 

 dicular, that the hunter, with hands and feet brought into 

 play, finds it almost impossible to follow. Their hearing 

 and sight are very acute ; at the same time so suspicious 

 and cautious are they that, although always assembled in 

 little parties of from ten to twenty, sentinels are regularly 

 told off for duty, which place themselves in the most com- 

 manding positions, ready to whistle the signal of alarm on 

 the slightest suspicion of danger, accompanied by the 

 usual sheep-like stamp of displeasure, which summons the 



