June 1, 1900.] 



KNOWLEDGE. 



137 



whioli are for the most part original : and an examination of these 

 is alone sutfitient to show the extraordiuarv amount of care and 

 labour the authors have bestowed on their suDject. Evidently they 

 had their whole hearts in their work : and the result will contribute 

 in no small degree to the well-deserved reputation they already 

 enjoy. The general classification of the group is the one now 

 usually accepted, save that Dr. Gregory h.is considered it a<lvisable 

 to briir.ide the Asteroidea (Star fishes) and Dphiaroidea (Hrittle-stars) 

 in a single class. In this he is no doubt justified, but we question 

 whether linguistic purists will accept the hybrid term " Stelleroidea " 

 as tile title for the class as thus extended. In our own opinion it 

 would have been preferable to have employed " Asteroidea " in this 

 sense ; designating the sub-classes " Asteroidea Vira " and 

 "Ophiaroidea." 



"The Teaching of Geographv in Switzerland and North Italv." 

 By Joan Bei-enice Keynolds. (C. J. Clay & Sons.) 2s. 6d. This 

 little book consists of the report wliich Miss Keynolds presented 

 to the Court of the University of Wales on her visit to Switzerland 

 and North Italy as t>ilchrist" Travelling Student, and it has beeii 

 published because the Executive Committee of the University be- 

 liexe that the infonuation it contains will be of material value to 

 teachers, and to all those interested in education, an opinion in 

 which we heartily concur. 



"Journal of Re.searches." By Charles Darwin. (Ward, Lock.) 

 Illustrated. 2s. Messrs. Ward, Lock and Co. have issued a new 

 and cheap edition of Darwin's Journal of his voyage in the 

 " Beagle," within chaste artistic covers which present a most 

 agreeable appearance, and those with the most slender resources 

 mar now add this^-one of the immortals — to their collection. 



The ever-valued Kodak has again evolved a new variety, namely, 

 the I.K Folding Pocket, the mechanism of which is of the familiar 

 ■■ folding-pocket " order, but the size of the picture — 4^ by 2^ — is 

 more pleasing. 



Entomologists, ornithologists, botanists, and othci's interested in 

 natural history, should have by them a copy of Messrs. Watkins 

 and Doncaster's new Catalogue, which is issued in handy form. 

 Taxidermists' tools, arti6cial eyes, birds' skins and eggs, cabinets, etc. 

 are entered against figures whicli will meet with general acceptance. 



BOOKS RECEIVED. 



Primiiive Constellations. Vol. II. By Eobert Brown. (Williams 

 & Norgate.) 10s. 6d. 



Fhoto- Relief Map of Africa. (S.P.C.K.) 9d. 



Origin and Character of the British People. By Nottidge Charles 

 Macnamara. (Smith, Elder & Co.) 6s. 



Alternating Currents. By W. S. Franklin and R. B. Williamson. 

 (Macmillan.) Illustrated. 78. 6d. net. 



Electricity and Magnetism. New Edition. By Silvanus P. 

 Thompson. (Macmillan.) Illustrated 4s. 6d. 



Zoolog'cal Results based on Material from New Guinea, Loi/aliy 

 Islands. Sf'c. Part IV. By Aj-thur Willey. (University Press, 

 Cambridge.) Illustrated. 21s. 



Papers on Mechanical and Physical Subjects. By Osborne 

 Reynolds, r B.s. (University Press, Cambridge.) Illustrated 

 156. net. 



Primeval Scenes. By the Rev. H. N. Hutchinson. (Lamley.) 

 lUnstrated. 69. 



The Story of the Alphabet. By Edward Clodd. (Newnes.) 

 Illustrated. 1 s. 



Journal of the Society of Comparjfive Legislation. April, 19IX). os. 



Elementary Practical Chemistry. By T. Cartwright. (Nelson.) 28. 



Travels on the Amazon. By A. R. Wallace. (Ward, Lock ) 2s. 



Letters of Berzelius and Schonbein, 1836-47. Edited by Georg 

 W. A. Kahlbaum. (Williams & Norgate.) 3s. 



Negritos. By A B. Meyer. (Stengel : Dresden.) 



Note on the Unpublished Observations, 1774-1838, Badcliffe 

 Observatory. By Arthur A. Rambaut, DSC, Radcliffe Observer. 



THE FIRST MUSK-OXEN IN ENGLAND SINCE 

 THE GLACIAL EPOCH. 



By R. Lydekkf.r. 

 Some persons are unfortunate in their names, and the 

 same is the case with certain animals. The ruminant 

 popularlj- known as the Musk-Ox and scientifically as 

 Ovibos moschatus is an instance of this, for although 

 no objection can be taken to the prefix " Musk," and its 

 Latin equivalent moschatus, yet the English title " ox " 

 is in the highest degree misleading, while the technical 

 " Ovibos, " which suggests characters intermediate be- 

 tween the oxen and the sheep, is equally unsatisfactory. 

 To say that the creature is an animal sui generis would 



be a truism, seeing that it is the sole existing represen- 

 tative of the genus Ovibos ; and yet this expression, 

 perhaps, best conveys the real slate of the case, namely, 

 that it is a more or less isolated member of the ruminant 

 group, coming under the designation neither of an ox 

 nor a sheep, nor yet being a connecting link between the 

 two. Under these circumstances it would bo much 

 better if the name " Musk-Ox " could be dropped al- 

 together, and (unless it be altogether unpronounceable) 

 its native Greenland equivalent adopted instead. Un- 

 fortunately, however, I have hitberto been unable to 

 ascertain by what name the creature is known to the 

 GrcenJanders. 



Although now restricted to Greenland and Arctic 

 America eastward of the Mackenzie River, the Musk- 

 Ox was formerly a circumpolar animal, its remains being 

 occasionally met with in the interior of Alaska, more 

 commonly in the frozen cliffs of Eschscholtz Bay, and 

 also in the ice-bound soil of the Lena and the Yenisei 

 valleys. Although unknown in Franz Josef Land and 

 Spitzbcrgen, the Musk-Ox extends polewards through 

 Parry Island and GrinncU Land into North Greenland, 

 where its northward range is probably only limited 

 by the limits of vegetation. South Greenland at tht; 

 present day is, however, too hot for such a cold-loving 

 beast, and Melville Bay now forms the southernmost 

 point to which it wanders on the west coast. Conse- 

 quently it would seem probable that the Musk-Oxen on 

 the west coast are completely isolated from those on the 

 eastern seaboard; the central mountain range of the 

 interior of Greenland being apparently impassable even 

 by such hardy animals, while a transit via Cape Farewell 

 is, as we have seen, barred by climatic conditions of an 

 opposite nature. 



In America, however, the Musk-Ox still ranges con- 

 siderably further south, its limits in this direction being 

 approximately formed by the sixtieth pai'allel of north 

 latitude ; but it is stated that year by year its southern 

 range is slowly contracting— possibly owing to pursuit 

 by man When the Musk-Ox ceased to be an inhabitant 

 of the Siberian tundra, or why it should ever have 

 disappeared from regions apparently so well suited to 

 its habits as are Northern Asia and Alaska, there are 

 no means of ascertaining. But the date of its disappear- 

 ance was probably by no means remote, comparatively 

 speaking, and it is even possible that man himself may 

 have taken a shai-e in its extermination. However this 

 may be, it is beyond doubt that the Musk-Ox was an 

 inhabitant of the South of England, as well as of pai-ts 

 of France and Germany, during, or about the time of 

 the glacial epoch; its remains occurring not uncommonly 

 in the gravels of the English river-valleys, such as 

 those of the Thames and Severn, as well as in the brick- 

 earths of Kent. It is also probable that they occur 

 in the " forest^bed ' of the Norfolk coast, which some- 

 what antedates the great glaciation of Britain. 



This being so, it is evident that the Musk-Ox was a 



j living British animal within the period during which 

 our islands have been inhabited by man, for in many 

 of the deposits in which its remains occur flint-imple- 



I ments and other evidences of human presence are like- 



j wise found. Probably, indeed, the early human 

 inhabitants of Britain not unfrequently made a meal of 

 Musk-Ox beef; but the disappearance of the animal 

 from the British fauna may apparently be attributed 

 rather to a change in climatic conditions than to pursuit 

 by man. 



From that long distant day when the last indigenous 



[ British Musk-Ox departed this life no living represen- 



