176 THEOUGH THE MACKENZIE BASIN 



(from the eastern coast Eskimos), Forts Good Hope and 

 Norman (from the Anderson Eskimos and from post In- 

 dians who specially hunt them), Rae and Resolution on 

 Great Slave Lake (from Indian hunters), Lac du Brochet, 

 Reindeer Lake, (from the inland Eskimos), and Eort 

 Churchill (from the Hudson Bay Eskimos). It is only 

 in recent years, however, that the Company has strongly en- 

 couraged the hunting of musk oxen, and although there is 

 no record of the sale of any in the London Statement,, 1853 

 and 1877, yet we now know that a numlber of pelts were 

 occasionally, if not annually, traded at Eorts Churchill and 

 Anderson, at least subsequent to 1860, and that they must 

 have been sold there or in Montreal (the British Company's 

 former market for buffalo robes), as the statement of the 

 northern department fur-returns for outfit 1865, printed here- 

 with (p. 272), shows that the districts of Mackenzie Kiver 

 and York, Hudson Bay, collected 25 and 66 musk-ox skins, 

 respectively, in that year. During the last thirty years the 

 Indians and Eskimos have devoted more attention than 

 before to the hunting of this valuable animal. In 1902, 271 

 skins and in 1,903, 246 skins were exposed for sale, and the 

 average for the past twenty years probably ranged between 

 200 and 250 pelts. The greater portion of those secured by 

 the Company are purchased in London and reshipped to 

 and used in Canada and the United States, chiefly as sleigh 

 and cutter winter robes. In his " Explorations in the Far 

 North," Dr. Frank Kiissell, of the Iowa State University, has 

 given a very interesting account of his successful efforts in 

 hunting the musk ox in the Fort Rae Indian country. His 

 other experiences in the territories of Canada are well 

 worthy of perusal, while his services to science reflect much 

 credit on himself and his Alma Mater. Mr. Caspar Whit- 

 ney's achievements in the pursuit of the musk ox, under the 

 unfavourable conditions as narrated in his published volume, 

 also deserve much commendation. 



