84 Bulletin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XIV, 



still exists in any part of Arctic America west of the Anderson 

 River. While Mr. Stone does not question that the supposed 

 Alaska Musk-Ox skins mentioned above were shipped to San 

 Francisco from Camden Bay, he claims, apparently with good 

 reason, that they must have been taken far to the eastward of 

 this point and brought to Camden Bay by whalers. His state- 

 ment, dated Feb. 28, 1901, is as follows : 



MY DEAR DR. ALLEN : 



In response to your inquiry in reference to the existence of the Musk-Ox 

 (Ovibos moschatus) west of the Mackenzie River, or in Alaska, I will state 

 there are none of these animals in any part of Arctic America west of 

 the Mackenzie. Previous to my departure for the North in the spring of 1897, 

 I had for several years carefully searched for information upon this subject, and 

 from what I had gathered I had a faint hope of finding some of these animals 

 in the mountains west of the Mackenzie, just south of the Arctic Coast. These 

 mountains are known, respectively, as the Richardson, Buckland, British, Ro- 

 manzof, and Franklin Mountains, but in reality they are the western extension 

 of the main Rocky Mountain range that bends west from the Mackenzie along 

 the Arctic Coast. On reaching the neighborhood of these mountains, however, 

 in the winter of 1898-99, all hope of finding living specimens of Musk-Ox in 

 them was destroyed. 



The Romanzof Mountains, from which specimens of Musk-Ox are reported 

 to have recently been brought, by way of Camden Bay, are about one hundred 

 and seventy-five miles west of Herschel Island. The Pacific Steam Whaling 

 Company, with offices at No. 30 California Street, San Francisco, have main- 

 tained a whaling station at Herschel Island for a number of years ; there has 

 also been established there for a number of years a Church of England Mission, 

 under the direction of the Rev. I. O. Stringer. I visited Herschel Island in 

 November and December, 1898, for the purpose of collecting all possible in- 

 formation relative to the animal life of those regions. On my way to and from 

 Herschel Island I sledded the very base of the Davis Gilbert, Richardson, and 

 Buckland Mountains. I stopped over night on both journeys with a lot of 

 Eskimo, at that time hunting the Davis Gilbert Mountains and living in what is 

 known as Oakpik (willow camp), in the extreme western part of the Mackenzie 

 delta, very near the foot of the mountains. Specimens of Ovis dalli (White 

 Sheep) and of Caribou and fur-bearing animals were plentiful in their camp, 

 but there was no sign of Musk-Ox. 



At Shingle Point, on the Arctic Coast, near the Richardson Mountains, I 

 spent several days with a man who was trading with the Eskimo who were 

 hunting the Richardson Mountains. There were several Eskimo in his camp 

 at the time, and he had in his possession skins of the White Sheep, Caribou, 

 and a variety of fur-bearing animals, but there was no sign of Musk-Ox, and 

 I learned on careful inquiry through my interpreter that the natives seemed to 

 know nothing of them, with the exception of one young man who had been to 





