190S.] 



MAMMALS. 



153 



and Anderson and Stewart saw Eskimo lodges made entirely of musk- 

 ox skins at Lake Franklin in the smnmer of ISoS.'^ Frank Russell, 

 who hunted musk-oxen to the northeast of Fort Eae in April. 1894:. 

 in company with Indians, observed the first signs of the animals about 

 three days" journey east of the Coppermine; between there and Bath- 

 urst Inlet a number of bands were seen.^ He was informed by the 

 Indians at Fort Eae that five or six years before, the musk-oxen had . 

 been found in the sparsely wooded country west of the Coppermine, 

 but that each year the hunters had been obliged to j^enetrate farther 

 into the Barren Grounds before finding the animals/ Caspar AAliit- 

 ney. during his trip to the Barren Grounds in ^larch and April. 1895. 

 found musk-oxen at several points east of the Coppermine to the 

 northward of Point Lake/^ 



A. J. Stone, in the early spring of 1899. saw many tracks of musk- 

 oxen to the southeast of Cape Lyon, but saw none of the animals, 

 and concluded that they had wintered there and had moved to other 

 feeding grounds, probably to the southward. Concerning their range 

 to the westward, he says: 



The result of extensive inqiury amon.ff the Indians and Esl^imo Avest of tlie 

 Mackenzie leads me to believe that tlie ^lusk-ox lias not inhabited that region 

 for a very long period. Indeed, only a few of the Kooki)iignii(i()ts east of the 

 Mackenzie have any knowledge of their ever having been seen west of Anderson 

 River, or anywhere between that river and the Mackenzie. Their western limit 

 is now far to the east of Anderson River and Liverpool Bay.<^ 



Later, in a letter published hy Doctor Allen, Stone presents much 

 detailed testimony proving the present absence of the musk-ox from 

 the region west of the ^lackenzie, and states that al)out 80 were killed, 

 mainly on Parry Peninsula, hy the hunters and -aihjrs of four whal- 

 ing vessels which wintered in Langton Bay in 1897-8. 



J. W. Tyrrell, during his exploration^ l^etween Great Slave Lake 

 and Chesterfield Inlet in 1900. found a l^and of 9 musk-oxen on Sif- 

 ton Lake, a few miles east of the outlet of Clint on-Colden Lake, on 

 June 27. Later in the summer he found the animals numerous along 

 Thelon Kiver, almost invariably on the north shore or on islands. 

 The bands of cows and young were easily startled, but the old bulls 

 were practically fearless.''' 



Hanbury, during his exploration of Thelon River in 1899. first 

 found musk-ox tracks numerous 35 miles above its junction with the 



«Jonru. Roy. Geog. Soc. XXVIT. p. .321, 1857, 

 ^ Expl. in Far North, pp. 112-117, 1898. 

 ^Ibid., p. 71, 1898. 



^On Snowshoes to Barren Grounds, p. 185 (map), 1896. 

 ^ Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist.. XIII, p. 42, 1900. 

 f Ibid., XIV, p. 86, 1901. 



^Ann. Rept. Dept. Interior (Canada) for 1900-1901, pp. 118, 121 (pp. 23, 26 

 of separate), 1902. 



