THE ZooLoGist—JANUARY, 1876. 4739 
which can be easily carried away. Indeed it is so accustomed to 
sponging upon others that it is often difficult to make him ashamed 
of himself. If, after hours of constant gnawing, or, when in com- 
pany with others, his envious snarling, one goes out of the tent to 
stop his tugging at the ropes, instead of going away humbly, he 
looks boldly into his benefactor’s face, barks at the firing, and goes 
off reluctantly. At other times they come curiously trotting along, 
not allowing themselves to be frightened by the firing, and a piece 
of bacon-rind will entice them to follow the sledge for miles. It is 
a troublesome piece of work to skin a fox newly killed, in the icy 
cold; its warm skin forming a warmer neck-tie on that account. 
Reindeer and Musk-Ox.—The Greenland reindeer differs at least 
from the American, Laplandish and Spitzbergen species. Its horns 
are not shovelled at the tips like theirs; they are also more upright. 
It carries its head and neck high; its whole build is elegant, and 
reminds one, in every respect, of the European deer. Kane and 
Hayes also met with them in the most northerly parts of West 
Greenland. Our excursions taught us that they increase in 
numbers towards the interior of the country; indeed, at the back 
of Kaiser Franz-Joseph Fjord, in the neighbourhood of a glacier 
remarkable for its luxuriant vegetation, we came upon a tolerably 
good footpath trodden by the reindeer. 
The musk, or, properly speaking, the sheep-ox is somewhat 
smaller than the European ox. Its threatening is quite in contrast 
to its harmless nature ; its colour is black ; its hair long, and falling 
in rough masses, though on its back is some wool, not to be sur- 
passed in fineness. Payer pulled out the wool of three that were 
killed, on Kuhn Island, to wrap a number of fossils in, for trans- 
portation, and took a careful sketch of one of the most stately. Its 
eyes are particularly small. As the name implies, the creature is 
distinguished, according to its age, some more, some less, by the 
smell of musk in its flesh and fat, to which, however, one can 
accustom oneself as to the smell of train-oil. Its flesh, upon the 
whole, greatly resembles that of our own ox. The first we saw and 
killed was on Shannon Island, in August, 1869. As we did not 
then know this animal we made the strangest guesses, comparing 
ittoa gnu. Like the reindeer it lives on vegetable food, which is 
scanty enough here. 
Scarcely anywhere in Greenland does the Flora suffice to change 
the face of the soil; at the utmost it only serves to shade it. Moss, 
