608 MUSK OXEN IN CAPTIVITY. 



of the lungs, and, after an illness of a week, died in spite of all the 

 efforts of the veterinary surgeons. 



A month later Peary brought to the park a small calf which he had 

 captured in northeast Greenland. It died three weeks afterwards 

 because of an abscess on the back, which had doubtless arisen from a 

 small wound unobserved under the thick fur. Wo have here a case 

 similar to that of one of the calves brought to Jemtland in 1900. 



But our antipodes on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean may con- 

 sole themselves with the reHection that .they possess the only musk 

 oxen that are at present living in a wild state upon the globe. We 

 rightly say at present, for how long will this self-supj)orting animal 

 be able to prolong its life and propagate its race, even in the desolate 

 and inhospital)le regions to which it has been driven? How long, 

 indeed? The insatiable enemies of the nuisk ox, the arctic wolf and 

 man — the most ravening wolf of all creation — follow on his tracks 

 and incessantly thin his ranks. Unfortunately, the ice does not alwa3"S 

 protect the east coast of Greenland against the landing of hunters as 

 well as it did in 1901 and ltH)2. 



We hope that the attempts at acclimatization which are now being 

 made in Sweden, at the instance of Professor Nathorst, will be 

 crowned with success. That excellent naturalist and unwearied arctic 

 explorer conceived the idea that the musk ox might be domesticated 

 and his extraordinarily Hne wool utilized. The impetuous temper of 

 the animal will, however, probal)lv make such an undertaking very 

 onerous; at an}" rate, much patience and the work of several genera- 

 tions will be required for its success. 



Postscript. — Professor Nathorst states, April 7, 1904, that of the 

 pair caught by Kolthoff the cow died in the autumn of 1903 of a liver 

 complaint (intestinal worms), upon which the bull was taken to 

 Jemtland to be bred .with the cow left there. Together with this 

 decrease of the numlier of musk oxen in Europe we can report an aug- 

 mentation, as the Norwegians have been successful again. Capt. Johan 

 Thjeldsoii, of the steamer Laura., belonging to Magnus K. Gicever, 

 brought home to Tromso at the end of August, 1903, 5 live musk 

 calves. These were all caught in east Greenland. The first one wa> 

 caught in the jNlusk Ox Bay, where Kolthoff in 1900 had found a num- 

 ber of oxen, and where now they met with onlj' half a score. At Cape 

 Graah they came across a flock with 3 calves. Having destroyed the 

 adult animals, the}^ caught the cah'es in nets. One of them, however, 

 had been grazed in the belly and died a few days after. At Mackenzie 

 Bay they caught 2 more calves. These 5 animals (1 bull and -4 heifers) 

 were placed in a paddock at Tromso. One of them was smaller than 

 the others and rather delicate. She died in November, whereas the 

 others were getting on well. Unfortunately, one of the heifers strangled 

 itself later on in an attempt to get out of the paddock. The young 



