314 CONSERVATION OF CANADIAN WILD LIFE 



would be easy enough to get the wool nearly pure at the start by pulling 

 it at the shedding season instead of clipping. The quantity given by one 

 musk-ox would be equal to that of two to three sheep. 

 The disadvantages of the musk-ox as compared with the reindeer are: 



(1) As draught animals they are far inferior to the reindeer in speed. 

 For certain uses this would be more than compensated for by their greater 

 strength. While reindeer in use would correspond to dogs or ponies, 

 musk-oxen would correspond to our domesticated oxen. 



(2) The skins of musk-oxen do not make as good clothes as those of 

 reindeer. They are as good as domestic sheep, however, and our expedi- 

 tion and other white men and Eskimos in the Arctic have found sheep 

 moderately suitable if worn with woollen or cotton underwear. 



The question of whether musk-oxen would breed in captivity, may, 

 I think, be dismssed, as they would not need to be confined, on account 

 of their quiet habits, nor attended to, on account of their ability to pro- 

 tect themselves; a band of them out of sight and hearing from a house 

 would be practically in their native condition. 



From observation I am convinced that the popular idea that musk- 

 oxen require high, rocky land, is wrong. How this idea originated is 

 easy to see. On the mainland from Point Barrow east musk-oxen, wher- 

 ever they have gone, have been exterminated by man. These have in 

 general been caribou-hunting Eskimo or Indians. As high rocky land is 

 generally not frequented by caribou and, as such land is generally un- 

 attractive to the Indian and Eskimo, it happens that the mainland musk- 

 ox has survived generally in high, comparatively barren land. At least 

 here in Melville Island we always find them in valleys and along the coast 

 on the lowest available land. 



They are grass-eaters like cattle and not moss-eaters as the reindeer 

 are. They are therefore adapted by nature to any grassy arctic land — 

 which means a large part of the "barren ground" of Alaska and Canada 

 (where, indeed, their bones are everjnvhere found). 



That the rausk-ox has been exterminated in many districts is no criti- 

 cism of him as a domestic animal. The same qualities which prevented 

 him from fleeing from his human enemies are the very ones that commend 

 him to us, as we desire him to take, in the northern districts, the place 

 our sheep and cattle hold in the south. 



A question that can be determined only by experiment is whether, in 

 this arctic climate, the musk-ox could stand being shorn of all its wool. 

 If it could not, some half-way method can be found. The death rate 

 among calves, whatever that is, could doubtless be reduced considerably 

 by suitable care. 



If the rate of increase of the musk-ox is similar to that of sheep under 



