MUSK-OX. 303 



\ 



leaving fragments of wool behind in its struggles. Its 

 progression under such circumstances is similar to that 

 of a snow-plough. We noticed that spots on hill- sides 

 where the snow lay only a few inches deep had been 

 selected for feeding- grounds, the snow having been 

 pushed away in furrows banked up at the end, as if the 

 head and horns of the animal had been used for the 

 task ; a few blades of grass and roots of willow showed 

 on what they had been feeding. The dung of the Musk- 

 Ox, though usually dropped in pellets like sheep or deer, 

 is very often undistinguishable from that of the genus 

 Bos. No person, however, watching this animal in a 

 state of nature, could fail to see how essentially ovine 

 are its actions. When alarmed they gather together 

 like a flock of sheep herded by a collie dog, and the way 

 in which they pack closely together, and follow blindly 

 the vacillating leadership of the old ram is unquestion- 

 ably sheep-like. When thoroughly frightened they take 

 to the hills, ascending precipitous slopes, and scaling 

 rocks with great agility." 



Dr. Eichardson, " Northern Zoology," p. 277, says : 

 " Its foot-prints are very similar to those of the Caribou, 

 but are rather longer and narrower. These oxen 

 assemble in herds of from twenty to thirty, rut about 

 the end of August and beginning of September, and 

 bring forth one calf about the latter end of May or 

 beginning of June." 



