MAMMALIA* 



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size. When this animal is fat,, its flesh is well tasted, and resembles that of the 

 caribou, but has a coarser grain. The flesh of the bulls is high flavoured, and 

 both bulls and cows, when lean, smell strongly of musk, their flesh at the same 

 time being very dark and tough, and certainly far inferior to that of any other 

 ruminating animal existing in North America. The carcase of a musk-ox weighs, 

 exclusive of the offal, about three hundred weight, or nearly three times as much 

 as a Barren -ground caribou, and twice as much as one of the Woodland caribou. 

 Notwithstanding the shortness of the legs of the musk-ox, it runs fast, and it 

 climbs hills and rocks with great ease. One, pursued on the banks of the Copper- 

 mine, scaled a lofty sand cliff", having so great a declivity that we were obliged to 

 crawl on hands and knees to follow it. Its foot-marks are very similar to those of 

 the caribou, but are rather longer and narrower. These oxen assemble in herds 

 of from twenty to thirty, rut about the end of August and beginning of September, 

 and bring forth one calf about the latter end of May or beginning of June 

 Hearne, from the circumstance of few bulls being seen, supposes that they kill 

 each other in their contests for the cows. If the hunters keep themselves con- 

 cealed when they fire upon a herd of musk-oxen, the poor animals mistake the 

 noise for thunder, and, forming themselves into a group, crowd nearer and nearer 

 together as their companions fall around them ; but should they discover their 

 enemies by sight or by their sense of smell, which is very acute, the whole herd 

 seek for safety by instant flight. The bulls, however, are very irascible, and, 

 particularly when wounded, will often attack the hunter and endanger his life, 

 unless he possesses both activity and presence of mind. The Esquimaux, who 

 are well accustomed to the pursuit of this animal, sometimes turn its irritable 

 disposition to good account ; for an expert hunter having provoked a bull to 

 attack him, wheels round it more quickly than it can turn, and by repeated 

 stabs in the belly, puts an end to its life. The wool of the musk-ox resembles 

 that of the bison, but is perhaps finer, and would no doubt be highly useful in 

 the arts if it could be procured in sufficient quantity. 



DESCRIPTION. 



In size, the full-grown musk-ox nearly equals the small breed of cattle peculiar to the 

 highland districts of Scotland. The horns are very broad at their origin, covering the brow 

 and whole crown of the head, and touching each other for their entire breadth from before 

 backwards. As each horn rises from its flatly convex base, it becomes round and tapering, 

 and curves directly downwards between the eye and the ear, until it reaches the angle of the 

 mouth, when it turns upwards in the segment of a circle to above the level of the eye. The 



