332 



A JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 



generally frequent the barren grounds during the summer months, 

 keeping near to the banks of the rivers, but retire to the woods in 

 winter. They seem to be less watchful than most other wild animals, 

 and when grazing are not difficult to approach, provided the hunters 

 go against the wind; when two or three men get so near a herd as 

 to fire at them from different points, these animals instead of sepa- 

 rating or running away, huddle closer together, and several are 

 generally killed; but if the wound is not mortal they become en- 

 raged and dart in the most furious manner at the hunters, who must 

 be very dexterous to evade them. They can defend themselves by 

 their powerful horns against the wolves and bears, which as the 

 Indians say, they not unfrequently kill. 



The musk oxen feed on the same substances with the rein-deer, 

 and the prints of the feet of these two animals are so much alike that 

 it requires the eye of an experienced hunter to distinguish them. 

 The largest of these animals killed by us did not exceed in weight 

 three hundred pounds. The flesh has a musky disagreeable flavour, 

 particularly when the animal is lean, which unfortunately for us was 

 the case with all that were now killed by us. 



During this day's march the river varied in breadth from one 

 hundred to two hundred feet, and except in two open spaces, a very 

 strong current marked a deep descent the whole way. It flows over 

 a bed of gravel, of which also its immediate banks are composed. 

 Near to our encampment it is bounded by cliffs of fine sand from 

 one hundred to two hundred feet high. Sandy plains extend on a 

 level with the summit of these cliffs, and at the distance of six or 

 seven miles are terminated by ranges of hills eight hundred or one 

 thousand feet high. The grass on these plains affords excellent 

 pasturage for the musk oxen, and they generally abound here. The 

 hunters added two more to our stock in the course of the night. 

 As we had now more meat than the party could consume fresh, 



