November 22, 1912] 



SCIENCE 



721 



ging in an old house ruin about 15 miles south- 

 west along the coast from Cape Smythe an 

 Eskimo last summer (1912) found a muskox skin 

 and brought it to me for sale; it is in the Point 

 Barrow collection which has just arrived at the 

 Museum but has not yet been unpacked. Another 

 Eskimo found a smaller piece of skin in another 

 house which I believe to be of a muskox, though 

 its badly decayed condition makes it difficult to 

 say positively that it is not the skia of the barren- 

 ground bear. 



I have myself seen muskox skulls both in the 

 delta of the Colville (imbedded in the earth) and 

 on Herschel Island (on top of the ground). 

 Respectfully, 



V. Stefannson 



In this connection it may be recalled that 

 Richardson in 1829' stated: 



From Indian information we learn that to the 

 westward of the Rocky Mountains, which skirt the 

 Mackenzie, there is an extensive tract of barren 

 country, which is also inhabited by the muskox 

 and reindeer. 



But no muskoxen were found when this sec- 

 tion of country was subsequently visited by 

 white men. Muskox skulls, however, have 

 been found upon the surface of the tundra 

 inland from Point Barrow in a condition indi- 

 cating a recent and not a Pleistocene origin. 

 Thus Mr. John Murdock, of the International 

 Poldr Expedition to Point Barrow,' reported 

 that just before leaving Point Barrow in 

 1884 a muskox skull was brought in by one of 

 the trading parties which had been as far 

 eastward as the Colville River, and he pre- 

 sumed that the skull had been brought from 

 there, and adds: 



The natives knew the animal well, and called it 

 by nearly the same name as the eastern Eskimos, 

 but none had ever seen it alive. The skull ob- 

 tained appeared very old and much weathered. 



Some years later the Mcllhenny Expedition 

 to Point Barrow obtained " one weather- 

 beaten [muskox] skull picked up on the 

 tundra." ^ 



^"Eaun. Bor.-Amer.," I., p. 276. 

 ''Eep., 1885, p. 98. 



'Witmer Stone, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 

 1900, p. 35. 



Mr. L. M. Turner, in referring to the 

 muskox,* says: 



There is no positive evidence of the actual oc- 

 currence of this mammal within the region here 

 included [the Yukon District and the Aleutian 

 Islands] ; but, as the northern Innuit and Indians 

 are so well acquainted with it, there can be no 

 doubt that it has but recently disappeared, if 

 scattered individuals do not yet inhabit the region 

 north of the Rumianzof Mountains near the Arctic 

 coast. 



In 1898, Mr. Frank EusselF made the fol- 

 lowing statement: 



The muskox was formerly common between the 

 Mackenzie and Behring Straits, as evidenced by 

 the remains which are scattered over the tundra. 

 The oldest natives at Point Barrow say that their 

 fathers killed muskox, which were then abundant. 



Recently Dr. W. T. Hornaday has pub- 

 lished" additional information furnished him 

 by Mr. Charles D. Brower, who has lived at 

 or near Point Barrow since 1884, much of 

 which is in substance the same as that given 

 above by Mr. Stefansson. The latter, how- 

 ever, not only confirms the main details of Mr. 

 Brewer's account, but gives additional facts of 

 considerable importance. 



The information presented above, except 

 that recently published by Dr. Hornaday, was 

 gathered and published by me in 1901' apropos 

 of the alleged then recent occurrence of musk- 

 oxen along the Arctic coast of Alaska east of 

 Point Barrow, based on three fresh skins with 

 their skulls shipped from Camden Bay to San 

 Francisco and thence to New York, where, 

 through the kindness of Mr. E. Bowsky, of 

 New York City, I had opportunity to com- 

 pare them with skins and skulls from the 

 Barren Grounds east of the Mackenzie. A 

 communication from Mr. A. J. Stone was 

 published in the same connection to the ef- 

 fect that these muskox skins must have orig- 

 inally been obtained by whalers around the 

 head of Franklin Bay or on Parry Peninsula 



*"Contr. to Nat. Hist. Alaska," 1886, p. 203. 



""Expl. in the Far North," 1898, pp. 235, 236. 



' New Yorh Zool. Soc. Bull, No. 45, May, 1911, 

 pp. 754, 755. 



'Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., XIV., 1901, pp. 

 81-83. 



