202 THE OX FAMILY 



The animals, when overtaken by the doi^s, stop 

 and stand in a circle with their heads out. They look 

 more formidable and ferocious than they are. In 

 fact, but little or no danger is to be feared from the 

 charge even of a wounded animal. Mr. Whitney is of 

 the opinion that they never charge and are quite inof- 

 fensive and harmless. With good dogs, he says, every 

 herd met could be easily wiped out. 



Frederick Schwatka tells us that the Indians of the 

 Hudson Bay country make winter trips into the 

 musk-ox country from the sea-coast, where they live 

 the greater part of the year. But the musk cattle of 

 the Arctic, he says, " are so sparsely distributed that 

 they form only a small part of the game necessary to 

 furnish these northern nomads with their yearly sup- 

 plies, and they place very little reliance upon them. 

 The annual musk-ox hunt, however, is looked forward 

 to with much interest, and is long in advance the 

 burden of their conversation, while housed in their 

 little snow huts. It is in the sport and excitement of 

 the chase that they find the greatest reward, and not 

 in the meat secured, nor in the half-worthless robes 

 that are thus obtained. These robes are of almost no 

 value to them unless they be near some trading-station 

 or whale-ships wintering in the ice. To us, however, 

 their huge carcasses were, as food for our three teams 

 of dogs, of great importance compared with that of the 

 reindeer or any other game that we would be likely to 

 fall in with." 



Whitney says he never saw a musk-ox charge a dog 

 — much less a man — and doubts if the}' would do so if 

 pulled by the ear. Schwatka says when the fl^'ing 



