166 A JOURNEY TO THE 



1771, tender branches of the pine tree. They take the bull in 

 ■'" ^' August, and bring forth their young the latter end of May, 

 or beginning of June ; and they never have more than one at 

 a time. 



[137] The musk-ox, when full grown, is as large as the 

 generality, or at least as the middling size, of English black 

 cattle ; ^ but their legs, though large, are not so long ; nor is 

 their tail longer than that of a bear ; and, like the tail of that 

 animal, it always bends downward and inward, so that it is 

 entirely hid by the long hair of the rump and hind quarters : 

 the hunch on their shoulders is not large, being little more in 

 proportion than that of a deer : their hair is in some parts very 

 long, particularly on the belly, sides, and hind quarters; but the 

 longest hair about them, particularly the bulls, is under the 

 throat, extending from the chin to the lower part of the chest, 

 between the fore-legs ; it there hangs down like a horse's 

 mane inverted, and is full as long, which makes the animal 

 have a most formidable appearance. It is of the hair from this 

 part that the Esquimaux make their musketto [138] wigs, and 

 not from the tail, as is asserted by Mr. Ellis ; f their tails, and 



* Mr. Dragge says, in his Voyage ["An Account of a Voyage for the Dis- 

 covery of a North-West Passage," by the Clerk of the California^ London, 1748], 

 vol. ii. p. 260, that the musk-ox is lower than a deer, but larger as to belly and 

 quarters ; which is very far from the truth ; they are of the size 1 have here 

 described them, and the Indians always estimate the flesh of a full-grown cow 

 to be equal in quantity to three deer. I am sorry also to be obliged to con- 

 tradict my friend Mr. Graham, who says that the flesh of this animal is carried 

 on sledges to Prince of Wales's Fort, to the amount of three or four thousand 

 pounds annually. To the amount of near one thousand pounds may have been 

 purchased from the natives in some particular years, but it more frequently 

 happens that not an ounce is brought one year out of five. In fact, it is by no 

 means esteemed by the Company's servants, and of course no great encourage- 

 ment is given to introduce it ; but if it had been otherwise, their general situa- 

 tion is so remote from the settlement, that it would not be worth the Indians 

 while to haul it to the Fort. So that, in fact, all that has ever been carried to 

 Prince of Wales's Fort, has most assuredly been killed out of a herd that has 

 been accidentally found within a moderate distance of the settlement ; perhaps 

 an hundred miles, which is only thought a step by an Indian, 

 t Voyage to Hudson's Bay, p. 232. 



