MAMMALIA OF N. GREENLAND AND GRINNELL LAND. 355 
take several years to restock the area over which we hunted 
along the northern shore of Grinnell Land. Examples examined 
by me contained many parasitical worms (Filaria) in the large 
intestine. 
Ovibos moschatus.—The attention of many distinguished natu- 
ralists has been given to the history of this animal, but the most 
important and exhaustive essay on the subject is that by Professor 
Boyd Dawkins, published in the volume of the Paleontological 
Society for 1871. There is an excellent article on the Musk-ox 
in the history of the German Arctic Expedition of 1869-70, and 
Dr. R. Brown, in his exhaustive paper on the Mammalian Fauna of 
Greenland, reprinted in the ‘Admiralty Manual’ of 1875 (from Proc. 
Zool. Soc.), gives full information in regard to the past and present 
range of this animal in Greenland. On my return from the Arctic 
Regions | was able to place in the hands of Dr. James Murie a 
few small portions of the stomach and other organs, so that before 
long we shall obtain some further insight into its anatomy from that 
accomplished physiologist. My regret is that the material given to 
Dr. Murie was extremely limited in amount. The fossil remains 
of Ovibos found in Siberia, North America, Germany, France and 
England have been determined by naturalists as identical with 
_the species now found living in the northern regions of the American 
continent and the most northern and eastern shores of Greenland, 
whilst most of the larger Mammalia of the Pleistocene period, 
with which the Musk-ox was associated, have passed away. The 
Musk-ox, being truly an Arctic mammal, doubtless travelled north- 
ward as the glacial ice-cap contracted; but in Europe and Asia 
this anima] found its limit of withdrawal bounded by the mainlands 
of the Old World. No trace of it has been discovered in Spitz- 
bergen or Franz Joseph Land; and the reasonable conclusion is 
that the great extent of sea which separates these groups of islands 
from the continents, formed an insuperable obstacle to its progress 
in that direction. Doubtless its remains are to be found in the 
New Siberian Islands, and there is no valid reason why it should 
not still inhabit Kellett Land. So far as we know, however, the 
Musk-ox living on the Arctic shores of Asia had no inaccessible 
retreats analogous to the Parry Archipelago of America, and 
consequently when brought into collision with man must have 
quickly disappeared. Towards the close of the last Glacial period, 
when the Straits of Behring were doubtless as choked with 
