The Arctic areas of the nuiinlanJ as seen from grounii level 

 appear endless and repellent in summer, just bare rocks and 

 dun-colored tundra, alternating with icy cold meandering waters 

 as far as the eye can see; in winter, they are nothing but a blank 

 whiteness. But even this monstrous nothingness blooms in spring 

 and bursts into glorious color in the fall, with every plant turning 

 another vivid hue and the stubborn lichens "burning" away in 

 their violent colors. 



From the air this land appears chaotic. Land, semi-land, and 

 water are intimately intertwined in endless spits, sloughs, ponds, 

 lakes, ridges, and domes so that the eye becomes utterly con- 

 fused and maps are worthless The vastness of these lands is 

 quite beyond our conception. The Ungava portion of Labrador is 

 a triangle 250 miles on a side: the Keewatin 400 miles, apart 

 from the panhandle that stretches west to the mouth of the 

 Mackenzie, which is another 300 miles long. There are distinct 

 geological and vegetational differences between the Ungava and 

 the Keewatin parts, and between both these and the Islands. Un- 

 gava is more closely associated with the Baffinland-to-Ellesmere- 

 land siring, and the Keewatin portion with the rest of the Islands. 



ICE-AGE ANIMALS 



Greenland and the Islands are inhabited by a species of reindeer 

 known as the Arctic Caribou, which stays in the northern lati- 

 tudes and grubs for a winter living under the snows. It is the 

 smallest of the American reindeer or caribou and most closely 

 related to the true reindeer of the Old World. Another outstand- 

 ing animal of this province is that strange beast known as the 

 Musk Ox. This has been given the delightful scientific name of 

 Ovibos or the "sheep-ox," but it is not even quite that, for its 

 only relatives are some strange animals known as takin that live 

 in the mountains of southern China and northern Thailand and 



Burma. Today musk oxen are comparatively rare, but they still 

 maintain themselves on the Islands, in northern Greenland, and 

 on the Keewatin triangle. They are large, very shaggy beasts 

 with downcurving horns and big feet Somehow they manage to 

 grub a living from the tundra mosses and lichens by browsing 

 and grazing in summer and by digging under the snow with 

 their forefeet in winter. 



Musk oxen seem to be able to survive the most intolerable 

 cold and blizzards. They protect themselves from the local 

 predators, notably wolves, by a means that sounds fanciful but 

 seems actually to be true. When threatened, they at first mill 

 around in a state of complete disorder until somehow the horned 

 males arrange themselves in a rough circle all facing outward 

 and with the breeding females and young inside. They then 

 lower their heads, breathe hot air in streams like old-time 

 dragons, rumble menacingly, and present a united front in all 

 directions. And to get into the circle is, for wolves or even for 

 men armed with high-powered repeating rifles (or, I am told, 

 with a helicopter) impossible, because the great bumbling beasts 

 are not nearly so stupid as they look and have a habit of shifting 

 the whole formation at a rapid pace and in fine order from side 

 to side or back and forth. A bull (or should it be ram?) musk ox 

 will not charge, but. acting in unison, a group will not give way 

 either. Their upturning horns are exceedingly sharp, and they 

 can jerk them up with lightning speed. 



They are, in fact, most efficient beasts, and they know their 

 terrain, their enemies, and a lot else about Arctic living, including 

 how to swim most agilely. This does not. somehow, seem quite 

 proper, for these animals look more like vast animated toys 

 constructed to plod about, apparently stiff-legged and somewhat 

 unsurely. Yet, when alarmed, they take off at a speed which 

 makes any mere ox look like a slowpoke, and often, in their 

 headlong flight, they hurl themselves into icy waters and go 

 churning off like traditional lake monsters. 



