MAMMALIA. 275 



[81.] 1. Ovibos moschatus. (Blainville.) Musk-Ox. 



Genus. Ovibos. Blainville. 



Le bceuf musque. M. Jeremie, Voy.au Nord, t. iii. p. 314. Charlevoix, Nouv. France, t. v. p. 194. 



Musk-Ox. Drage, Voy., vol. ii. p. 260. Dobbs, Hudson's Bay, pp. 19, 25. Ellis, Voy., p. 232. Pennant, 

 Quadr., vol. i. p. 31. Arctic Zool., vol. i. p. 9. Hearne, Journey, p. 137. Parry, First Voy., p. 257, 

 •with a plate. Second Voy., pp. 497, 503, 512. British Museum. Specimen on the stair. 



Bqs moschatus. Gmelin, Syst. Sabine (Capt.), Parry's First Voy., SuppL, p. clxxxix. Sabine (Mr.), Frank- 

 lin's Journ., p. 668. Richardson, Parry's Second Voy., Appendix, p. 331. 



Matheh-moostoos (ugly bison.) Cree Indians. 



Adgiddah-yawseh (little bison.) Chepewyans and Copper Indians. 



Oomingmak. Esquimaux. 



We are indebted for the first notice of this animal to M. Jeremie, who brought 

 some of its wool to France, and had some stockings made of it, which were said 

 to have been more beautiful than silk. The earlier English voyagers also give us 

 some information respecting it, but Pennant has the merit of being the first who 

 systematically arranged and described it, from the skin of a specimen sent home 

 by Hearne, the celebrated traveller. From its want of a naked muzzle and some 

 other peculiarities, M. Blainville has placed it in a genus, intermediate, as its 

 name denotes, between the sheep and the ox ; but it is remarkable amongst the 

 American animals for never having had more than one specific appellation, whilst 

 other animals, of much less interest, have been honoured with a long list of 

 synonyms. 



The musk-ox inhabits the Barren-lands of America lying to the northward of 

 the sixtieth parallel of latitude*. Hearne mentions that he once saw tracks of one 

 within a few miles of Fort Churchill, in latitude 59° ; and in his first journey to the 

 north, he saw many in about latitude 61°. I have been informed that they do not 

 now come so far to the southward even on the Hudson's Bay shore ; and further 

 to the westward they are rarely seen in any numbers lower than latitude 67°, 

 although from portions of their sculls and horns, which are occasionally found 

 near the northern borders of Great Slave Lake, it is probable that they ranged 

 at no very distant period over the whole country lying betwixt that great sheet of 

 water and the Polar sea. I have not heard of their having been seen on the 

 banks of Mackenzie's River to the southward of Great Bear Lake, nor do they 



* Pennant says, that they are found in the lands of the Cris or Cristinaux, and Assinibouls ; this is, however, a 

 mistake. The lands he alludes to, are the plains which extend from the Red River of Lake Winipeg to the Saskat- 

 chewan, and are inhabited by the Crees or Natheh-wye-withinyoo, and the Asseeneepools or Asseeneepoytuck ; but it 

 is the bison that frequents that district, and not the musk-ox. He is correct, however, in saying that they are hunted 

 by the Attimospiquay, who are the Dog-ribs of Great Bear Lake. 



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