Article VII. THE MUSK-OXEN OF ARCTIC AMERICA 

 AND GREENLAND. 



By J. A. ALLEN. 

 PLATES XII-XVI, AND 7 TEXT FIGURES. 



A fine series of Musk-Oxen, collected by Lieut. R. E. Peary, 

 U. S. N., on Bache Peninsula, October 7, 1898, and recently re- 

 ceived at the Museum through the Peary Arctic Club, has fur- 

 nished opportunity for comparison of the coast form with the 

 Musk-Oxen of the Barren Grounds east of the Mackenzie River, 

 and with others alleged to have come from the barren grounds 

 of Alaska, west of the Mackenzie. 



Respecting these specimens, the following extract from a 

 letter from Mr. Peary to the President of the Peary Arctic Club, 

 dated " Etah, Greenland, Aug. 28, 1899," will be of interest : 



. . . . I send you skins and skulls of Musk-Oxen 

 killed on Bache Peninsula in October, 1898, with skulls of eight 

 others, killed in the same place. I regret that there are no 

 measurements of these animals. I have been unfortunate in not 

 being present at the killing of any of the animals. Fifteen, 

 comprising all of one herd, were killed on the afternoon of 

 Oct. 7, when the days were very short ; and what with the 

 cold and darkness and the necessity for skinning the animals 

 with the utmost speed before they became frozen and before the 

 meat was tainted, seven of the skins were spoiled as specimens, 

 and the corresponding leg bones of the other eight were not 

 noted by the Eskimos and were not possible of identification 

 when I reached the place the next day. 



" Also skin and skull of another (a bull) killed in the same 

 locality April 14, and the skin and skull of a calf killed by 

 Dr. Dedrick at Fort Conger and brought in by him intact so that 

 I was able to get measurements." 



This material proved on examination to consist of ten skins 

 with skulls, -one skin (of a yearling) without skull, one head of 

 an old bull, and seven additional skulls without skins, rep- 

 resenting in all nineteen individuals. The skins comprise two 

 adult females and a female calf, three old males, and five young 

 males of different ages. Five of the skins have been selected 

 to mount for a group, with the proper accessories. The mount- 

 ing of the animals is so nearly completed that it is practicable 



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