MUSK OX 431 



set out on foot into the Barren Ground, expecting to find musk 

 ox at any time. We travelled hard towards the north, but only 

 fell in with two solitary bulls, both of which were killed ; the 

 rutting season was just coming on, and the bulls were apparently 

 seeking the cows. Winter was approaching, the small lakes 

 were frozen up and the ground covered with snow ; we were 

 unprovided with dogs and all the outfit necessary for winter 

 travel, and were forced to abandon the hunt, reaching our camp 

 after three weeks' absence early in October. On this journey we 

 found the caribou plentiful, and had little trouble from short 

 rations. 



The next five weeks were passed at the edge of the woods, 

 and it was well on in November when we started on another ex- 

 pedition ; this time I went with a band of Yellow Knife Indians, 

 as most of the half-breeds had deserted. Six sleighs hauled 

 by twenty-four dogs carried a supply of firewood sufficient for 

 three weeks with the strictest economy, and a little dried meat 

 which was to last us till we reached the musk ox. Luckily, 

 we had left a few meat caches on our first trip, or I think we 

 could hardly have made a successful hunt, as men and dogs 

 require more than the usual rations in the excessive cold which 

 prevails in the Barren Ground during the early winter. After 

 ten days' fair travelling, with some delays from wind storms and 

 the trouble of cutting the meat caches out of the ice in which 

 we had stored them, just as we had come to the end of our 

 provisions two bands of musk ox were discovered. By rough 

 guessing, one band contained a hundred and the other sixty 

 animals, bulls and cows of all ages. The usual methods of 

 winter hunting were employed, and a wholesale slaughter began ; 

 the dogs let loose from the sleighs rounded up as many of the 

 animals as they could hold, and, going close up, we killed them 

 as easily as cattle at the shambles. 



The musk ox took no notice of the men, and seemed to 

 suppose that the dogs were their only danger ; and it is to be 

 presumed that by herding together in this manner they resist 

 the attacks of wolves, which follow the caribou, and probably 



