CHAPTER IX. 



HUNTING THE MUSK-OX. 



Since the original issue of this book the author has had 

 occasion, more than once, to revisit and explore portions of 

 our sub-arctic territory, and, upon one of these expeditions,, 

 to penetrate the haunts of the musk-ox and to meet with large 

 numbers of these noble animals. The musk-oxen are claimed 

 as relatives both by the sheep and ox families, though they 

 perhaps more properly represent a distinct family by them- 

 selves. 



In general appearance they may be said to somewhat re- 

 semble huge brown homed sheep, but in size and weight they 

 much more nearly resemble the ox, or, better still, the buffalo, 

 the monarch of the prairies a generation ago. 



Like the buffalo, the musk-ox (Ovibos moschatus) is gre- 

 garious in its habits, but where the former existed in thou- 

 sands the latter is found only in tens — a band of twenty or 

 thirty being as many as are commonly found together. The 

 above comparison of numbers may also be taken as approxi- 

 mately representing the whole existing musk-ox family as 

 compared with that of the buffalo in his palmy days. 



In pre-historic times, as shown by the exhumed remains, 

 the musk-ox occupied a very wide area of the earth's surface, 

 both in Europe, Asia and America, but now his range is 

 limited to the northern parts of Canada and Greenland. 

 From personal observation I have found the southern bound- 

 ary of the musk-ox habitat to-day to be Hudson Straits and 

 Bay, Chesterfield Inlet, the Thelon River, Clinton-Colden 

 and Aylmer Lakes, whereas in the time of Samuel Hcarne^ 



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