288 MOSTLY MAMMALS 
with in the interior of Alaska, more commonly in the frozen 
cliffs of Eschscholtz Bay, and also in the ice-bound soil of 
the Lena and the Yenisei valleys. Although unknown in 
Franz Josef Land and Spitzbergen, the musk-ox extends 
polewards through Parry Island and Grinnell Land into 
North Greenland, where its northward range is probably 
only limited by the limits of vegetation. South Greenland 
at the present day is, however, too hot for such a cold- 
loving beast, and Melville Bay now forms the southernmost 
point to which it wanders on the west coast. Consequently 
it would seem probable that the musk-oxen on the west coast 
are completely isolated from those on the eastern seaboard ; 
the central mountain range of the interior of Greenland 
being apparently impassable even by such hardy animals, 
while a transit vid Cape Farewell is, as we have seen, 
barred by climatic conditions of an opposite nature. 
In America, however, the musk-ox still ranges consider- 
ably farther south, its limits in this direction being 
approximately formed by the sixtieth parallel of north 
latitude; but it is stated that year by year its southern 
range is slowly contracting—possibly owing to pursuit by 
man. When the musk-ox ceased to be an inhabitant of 
the Siberian ¢undra, or why it should ever have disappeared 
from regions apparently so well suited to its habits as are 
Northern Asia and Alaska, there are no means of ascer- 
taining. But the date of its disappearance was probably 
by no means remote, comparatively speaking, and it is 
even possible that man himself may have taken a share 
in its extermination. However this may be, it is beyond 
doubt that the musk-ox was an inhabitant of the south 
of England, as well as of parts of France and Germany, 
during or about the time of the glacial epoch ; its remains 
occurring not uncommonly in the gravels of the English 
