MUSK OX 429. 
s pfiatey, and give a short account of the manner in 
many of them are annually killed by the Northern Indians. 
hoever invented the word ovios to classify the musk ox 
hit the nail squarely on the head, and this single word de- 
scribes so exactly the strange mixture of sheep and bull that 
: _ there is little left to be said upon the subject. I am indebted 
__ to Messrs. Rowland Ward & Co. for the following dimensions, 
_ which were taken from an adult bull, not a particularly large 
: one, but a fair average specimen :— 
pele ft. ins. 
Length from nose to tip of tail 6 0 
Height from ground to shoulder nosy Cy 
Height from ground to top of rump Saori re SR 
Height from ground to belly . : I 10 
Round body over hair 5 93 
Depth of base of horn 1 1 
Length of hair under neck 1 10 
Length of hair under belly 1 oO 
The long hair is never shed, but underneath it lies a thick 
fleece, which comes off every year and hangs in sheets from the 
rocks and small bushes against which the animals have been 
_ rubbing ; and herein lies the distinction between a prime musk- 
: ox robe and one killed out of season. The hair varies from 
brown to black in different parts of the body, but a saddle of 
Tight yellow shows up very conspicuously in the middle of the 
a _ back. The cows are smaller than the bulls, and their horns 
"never grow together into the solid boss that is to be seen in 
_ the case of a bull at the age of six years. In the young, the 
_ horns grow straight out from the head after the manner of a 
_ barn-yard calf, and do not show the downward curve till the 
second year. 
' ‘The present range of the musk ox is limited to the North 
. _ American continent and the .outlying islands in the Arctic 
' Ocean ; it is perhaps best defined as lying to the north and 
' east of a line drawn from the mouth of the Mackenzie river 
|) to Fort Churchill on Hudson Bay. Latitude 60° is generally 
