PECULIARITIES OF THE MUSK-OX 17 
I gaze upon each living Musk-Ox to be seen in captivity 
with a feeling of wonder, as if it were a creature from another 
world. There are times, also, when I wonder whether many 
of the visitors who see them quietly munching their clover 
hay appreciate the effort that has been put forth to capture 
them in the remote and desolate regions of the far North, 
keep them alive and bring them to civilization for public 
exhibition. 
The Musk-Ox is one of the strangest of all our large 
animals, and its appearance is so odd and striking that when 
once seen by an observant person it is not easily forgotten. 
In it one sees an oblong mass of very long and wavy brown 
hair, 414 feet high by 614 feet long, supported upon very 
short and post-like legs that are half hidden by the sweeping 
pelage of the body. The three-inch tail is so very small and 
short it is quite invisible. There is a blunt and hairy muzzle, 
round and shining eyes, but the ears are almost invisible. 
The whole top of the head is covered by a pair of horns 
enormously flattened at the base and meeting each other in 
the centre line of the forehead. From the meeting point 
they sweep downward over the edge of the cranium, close to 
the cheeks, but finally recurve upward before coming to a 
point, like the waxed mustache of a boulevardier. 
The iris of the Musk-Ox is of a chocolate-brown color, 
the pupils are elongated and bluish purple. The lips and tip 
of the tongue are also bluish purple. 
The outer hair is a foot or more in length, and often touches 
the snow when the animal walks. In the middle of the back 
is a broad “‘saddle-mark,” of shorter, dull-gray hair. Next 
