332 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



person may hunt or trap within its borders, and entry is pro- 

 hibited except under permit from the Minister of the Interior. 

 In 1929 it was estimated that there were 250 muskoxen in this 

 sanctuary. In 1935 a representative of the department made 

 an airplane survey and counted 180 muskoxen north of the 

 junction of the Thelon and Hanbury Rivers (Cameron, 1936), 

 and Dr. R. M. Anderson (1937) adds that there are a few 

 scattered bands and individuals still farther north, although 

 few if any animals are now known to occur very near the 

 Arctic coast. With this protection it seems likely that the 

 remnant of the continental muskox is safe enough at present. 



HUDSON BAY MUSKOX 



OVIBOS MOSCHATUS NIPHOECUS Elliot 



Ovibos moschatus niphoecus Elliot, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, vol. 18, p. 135, Apr. 



18, 1905 (type locality, head of Wager Inlet, Hudson Bay, not "600 miles north 



of Hudson Bay" as originally given). 

 FIG.: Kowarzik, 1910, vol. 5, fig. 8. 



In his key, J. A. Allen (1913) characterizes this race as having 

 "usually no coronal nor facial white areas in adult males, but 

 traces of them (often well developed) in young males and 

 females; horns more slender and longer in proportion to their 

 basal breadth, and generally light-colored; toothrow relatively 

 longer (max[illary] series, cf, 130 [mm.]); basal length of 

 skull in old males, 442 mm." The males are usually more 

 intensely black than the typical race, and the horns are 

 lighter colored. While males generally lack the white on face 

 and crown, the females and young are much like the Green- 

 land race. In body size it is much as in the typical race. 



The range of this race, and indeed its characters, do not 

 seem to be very well defined. The region whence came the 

 original specimens was at the head of Wager Inlet, in the 

 northwestern corner of Hudson Bay. According to Captain 

 Comer, who collected them, the muskox does not now range 

 south of Chesterfield Inlet, but it is believed that the distribu- 

 tion of this race extends northward from the latter point to the 

 Arctic coast of the mainland and inland for an undetermined 

 distance. They are not found on Melville Peninsula or in 

 Baffin Land, nor do the natives there have any tradition of 

 their former occurrence. North of Baker Lake the natives say 

 that the muskoxen are larger, perhaps representing the typical 



