NOTES ON THE SEAL AND WHALE FISHERY. 73 



not for necessaries only, but for luxuries they olid better without 

 in the past. The Musk Ox is one of the easiest of wild animals 

 to approach, and as the demand for their skins is unlimited and 

 the supply very much the reverse, it is by no means unlikely that 

 the species will be exterminated before its life-history is fully 

 studied by naturalists. Although not difficult to capture, and 

 easy to manage when young,* the only living examples which 

 have hitherto been brought to this country are two young ones, 

 unfortunately both males, recently added to the Duke of Bed- 

 ford's collections at Woburn. 



The above are not the whole of these animals which have 

 been captured during the past year ; fortunately those I am about 

 to mention were made a better use of. Dr. Nathrost, writing of 

 his recent expedition to East Greenland (Geo. Jour. Nov. 1899, 

 vol. xiv. pp. 534-37), and referring to the zoological results of 

 the voyage, says, " We have secured twenty-eight Musk Oxen, all 

 of which were prepared in some way or other, so that we had 

 skeletons, skins, all the interior parts, brains, &c, brought 

 home." This is well so far, but he also mentions "the fact that 

 the White Polar Wolves have made an invasion around the 

 northern part of Greenland along the whole coast, at least to 

 Scoresby Sound, 1 ' and that " the Reindeer are now very scanty 

 in consequence of their having been killed by the Wolves," a fate 

 too likely to be shared by the Musk Oxen. 



My thanks, as on former occasions, are especially due to 

 Mr. Michael Thorburn, of St. John's, Newfoundland, and Mr. 

 Robert Kinnes, of Dundee, for their kindness in supplying me 

 with much valuable information. 



* See Buffalo Jones's ' Forty Years of Adventure,' p. 382, et seq., for an 

 account of lassoing young Musk Oxen near Chesterfield Inlet. 



