NORTH AMERICA AND THE WEST INDIES 333 



race. Captain Comer states that formerly the native Eskimo 

 hunted these animals but seldom on account of the risks in- 

 volved in making the inland trips, but are encouraged to under- 

 take their pursuit by traders who are eager for the pelts. Up 

 till recent years at least, the remoteness of the region where 

 these muskoxen occurred was itself a factor of safety, for few 

 hunters would enter it unless well provisioned (J. A. Allen, 

 1913). 



Though explorers agree that no muskoxen are now known to 

 occur on Melville Peninsula or on Baffin Island, there is some 

 evidence that they may formerly have been found there but 

 have been exterminated by the Eskimos. "The Canadian 

 commission report (1922, p. 13) notes a tradition of a Muskox 

 once killed on Baffin island . . . ," while on Melville 

 Peninsula Freuchen states that it has so recently been exter- 

 minated there that the Eskimos "still knew the names of men 

 who have hunted it" (Hone, 1934). Apparently there is 

 nothing to indicate that muskoxen ever occurred naturally on 

 Southampton, although, as noted by Miss Hone, Freuchen 

 "says that some teeth were found in the settlement at Kuk on 

 the west side of York Bay, and* according to the Eskimos there 

 was a skull in a house ruin on the south shore." 



WHITE-FACED MUSKOX 

 OVIBOS MOSCHATUS WARDI Lydekker 



Ovibos moschatus wardi Lydekker, Nature (London), vol. 63, p. 157, Dec. 13, 1900 



(Clavering Island, off East Greenland). 

 SYNONYM: Ovibos moschatus melmllensis Kowarzik, Fauna Arctica, vol. 5, pp. 113-116, 



1910. 

 FIGS.: Allen, J. A. ( 1913, figs. 29, 31. 33, 34-38, 40-44, pis. 11-17 (exterior, live animals, 



skull, teeth). 



This northernmost race of the muskox has "conspicuous 

 areas of white between and behind the horns, and face and 

 sides of the head sometimes suffused with white to a greater or 

 less extent in old males, in which much of the original white 

 area is obliterated by the development of the horn bases; 

 horns long and slender in proportion to their basal breadth, 

 very light creamy white; tooth row relatively longer than in 

 moschatus (max[illary] series in males, 140 mm.); basal length 

 of skull in old males, 442 mm." "In general coloration wardi 

 is not so dark as either moschatus or niphoecus; the saddle 



