MAMMALIA OF N. GREENLAND AND GRINNELL LAND. 357 
Greenland. Dr. Robert Brown, in his ‘Essay on the Physical 
Structure of Greenland,’ published by the Geographical Society 
for the use of the recent Arctic Expedition, thus refers to this 
range of the Musk-ox, Lemming and Ermine:—“ These illustra- 
tions, though seemingly trivial in themselves, are yet of extreme 
z00-geographical interest as tending to show that the Greenland 
land must end not far north of latitude 82° or 83°.” In the month 
of August, 1875, we met with abundant traces of the Musk-ox in 
the Valley of the Twin Glacier, leading inland from the shores of 
Buchanan Strait. I noticed where these animals had been shel- 
tering themselves under the lee of big boulders, as sheep do on 
bleak hill-sides, and that the same spots were frequently occupied 
was shown by the holes tramped out by the animals, and the large 
quantities of their long soft wool which was scattered around. 
Musk-oxen were obtained in considerable numbers near to the 
winter-quarters of the ‘ Discovery,’ over forty being shot; but in 
the extreme north of Grinnell Land, nearer to the winter-quarters 
of the ‘Alert,’ they were much scarcer, only six having been 
obtained by the crew of that vessel, whilst at Thank God Harbour, 
where the ‘ Polaris’ Expedition obtained over a score, only one 
was seen and shot. The range of the Musk-ox in Grinnell Land 
is confined to the coast line and the valleys debouching thereon. 
It is an animal by no means fitted to travel through the deep soft 
snow which blocks up the heads of all these valleys. On one 
occasion, in Westward Ho! Valley, in the month of May, Lieut. 
Egerton, R.N., and I came across fresh tracks of this animal in 
soft snow, through which it had sunk belly-deep, ploughing out a 
path, and 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 
