THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 675 



latter furnish the Samoyeds with hunting sport which they indulge 

 in throughout all the long winter months. There are two ways 

 of taking the animal, and both equally popular. One is by mak- 

 ing a large corral on the snow-plains, which is approached by 

 wide converging wings. One or more domestic reindeer are tied 

 in the center of the corral, after which a wild herd is driven to- 

 ward the enclosure, which they enter through the wings, and are 

 then quickly slaughtered. Reindeer are easily driven, notwith- 

 standing their shyness, for they keep together like sheep and do 

 not run very far before stopping to graze. This habit is taken 

 advantage of by Samoyeds, not only to capture them in corrals, 

 but also to drive them into rivers, where men previously posted 

 on shore and in boats armed with lances, easily despatch hundreds 

 without trouble. 



THE MUSK-OX. 



ONE of the most remarkable quadrupeds of the high northern 

 regions is the musk-ox, which by some naturalists has been con- 

 sidered as intermediate between the sheep and the ox. It is about 

 the height of a deer, but of much stouter proportions. The horns 

 are very broad at the base, almost meeting on the forehead, and 

 curving downward between the eye and ear until about the level 

 of the mouth, when they turn upward. Its long, thick, brown 

 or black hair hanging down below the middle of the leg, and cov- 

 ering on all parts of the animal a fine kind of soft ash-colored 

 wool, which is of the finest description, and capable of forming 

 the most beautiful fabrics manufactured, enables it to remain 

 even during the winter beyond 70 of northern latitude. In spring 

 it wanders over the ice as far as Melville Island, or even Smith's 

 Sound. They are exclusively confined to the New World now, 

 though that they were at one time numerous in Siberia is attested 

 by the great number of fossil remains of the animal still to be 

 found there. Its legs are short, but it runs with much speed and 

 climbs lofty precipices like the Rocky Mountain goat. They go 

 in herds of twenty or thirty, but are so scarce as to be seldom 

 met with. Dr. Kane, in all his travels in the Arctic regions, did 

 not see a single herd, though he obtained an excellent specimen 



