346 BRITISH MAMMALS 



ascertain who examines the domestic cow) very often two more 

 mammae placed on the front of the udder, from which, of course, 

 no milk can be drawn. 



From the little that we know of its past history in fossil 

 forms, and arguing from the present locality of its only near 

 relations — the Central Asian capricorns and the primitive oxen — 

 we may suppose that the musk ox originated in the chief womb 

 of the world, somewhere in Asia, possibly in the regions north 

 of India. From Central Asia it spread across Behring Straits 

 into Arctic America, where it still exists. During the Pleistocene, 

 however, it travelled across Siberia and Central Europe into 

 France and the Pyrenees. It also entered England from the 

 direction of Belgium (no doubt at a time when the land con- 

 nection subsisted), and spread right across Southern England and 

 into East Anglia. Its remains have been obtained from Kent, 

 from various places in the valley of the Thames, from near Bath, 

 and from Gloucestershire, as well as from Norfolk. Elsewhere 

 in the Old World its remains have been found in Northern 

 Siberia, of such a recent character as to suggest that its extinction 

 in that part of the world has been within the Historical Epoch. 

 Its remains in Germany, as in England, date from the Pleisto- 

 cene period and before the advent of the Glacial ages. This is 

 an important point to remember, because the presence of the 

 musk ox in this island, in company with the remains of such 

 creatures as the lion, hyaena, reindeer, and hippopotamus, was 

 thought to present an inexplicable jumble of northern and 

 southern forms, of some creatures which must have a warm 

 climate and of others absolutely dependent for their very existence 

 on Arctic conditions. On second thoughts, however, it will be 

 seen that, judging from their affinities, both musk ox and reindeer 

 must have originated in a region possessing a temperate climate ; 

 at any rate, a country with hot summers, a region equally well 

 admitting the existence in the summer-time or all the year round 

 of lions and hippopotamuses. The struggle for existence drove 

 the musk ox farther and farther north, until it has only survived 

 finally in the extreme Arctic regions of North America. During 



