THE GAME ANIMALS OF CANADA 97 



mers and one winter, 1915-1916. On this island, he esti- 

 mates that there are from 3,000 to 4,000 musk-oxen. Ac- 

 cording to the latest reports that he received they appear to 

 be extinct on Banks Island, or, if present, are very scarce. 

 A few herds were reported from the northeast of Victoria 

 Island, but none was reported from Prince Patrick Island. 

 He found no musk-oxen on the islands discovered by him, 

 nor on the Ringnes Islands. 



At the present time, the chief habitat of the musk-ox in 

 Canadian territory appears to be Ellesmere Island. Their 

 abundance in that region is shown by Doctor Donald B. 

 MacMillan in his account of the Crocker Land Expedition 

 of the American Museum of Natural History.* 



In a quotation given by Doctor MacMillan from the 

 writings of Sir Clements Markham, it is stated that Elles- 

 mere Island ''is called Oo-ming-man (the land of the musk- 

 oxen) by the Eskimo." Mr. W. Elmer Ekblaw, a member 

 of the Crocker Land Expedition, made traverses of Elles- 

 mere Island, and in the account of his explorations which 

 is given in Doctor MacMillan's interesting narrative, he 

 states: 



The west coast of Ellesmere Island in the vicinity of Bay Fjord, is not 

 generally so precipitous and bleak as the east coast. It is more maturely 

 dissected, the valleys are wide, the slopes are less steep and the moun- 

 tains do not everywhere rise so abruptly. Large tracts support a rela- 

 tively luxuriant growth of willow, sedge and grass, the chief foods of the 

 musk-oxen. 



In this place a herd of sixty-seven animais was seen, of 

 which fourteen were kiUed for food. Ekblaw states that the 

 excellent condition in which they were found was due, no 

 doubt, to the excellent pasturage they found on the grassy 

 meadows among the mountains and along the fjord. 



* "Four Years in the White North," by Donald B. MacMillan. Harper 

 & BrotheTB, New York, 1918, 



