THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
of the caribou. It has been said that the horns are also used for clearing 
away the snow, but, personally, I doubt this. During the short northern 
summer musk oxen get into fine condition by the time their winter coat 
is fully developed, but by the spring they become very thin and in poor 
condition. They are not animals that migrate to any extent, and do 
not come south, like the caribou, to the wooded districts in winter, but 
remain on the inhospitable Barrens, generally not far from the northern 
coast line. 
For a short distance musk oxen can run with speed, but are full of 
curiosity and soon wheel and face the intruder. They seem to be easily 
brought to bay with dogs, and turn to face them until the hunters come 
up. They are said to be able to climb with agility on very precipitous 
ground. They are by no means dangerous animals, and when wounded 
will seldom, if ever, charge. By nature, however, they are of a somewhat 
warlike disposition. 
The instinct of self-preservation, doubtless due to the constant attacks 
of wolves, is highly developed. A young animal in an enclosure at Woburn 
would charge at any stranger that approached it, and two others recently 
captured in Greenland, which I saw in Norway, were equally ready to 
defend themselves. Several young musk oxen have recently been imported 
into Europe, and one has just been acquired by the American Zoological 
Society; but they do not seem to thrive in confinement and appear to be 
always labouring for breath in low latitudes. It is too warm, and the air 
of these more southern countries is not sufficiently rarefied for them. 
The climate of England to-day is probably much warmer than that of the 
early Pleistocene age when the musk ox existed here. 
In unfrequented places, both in the Canadian Barrens and in Greenland, 
there seems to be no sport in hunting the musk ox; for, in most cases, 
a herd on being viewed forms a circle and stands in a menacing attitude 
until the hunters approach to within short range. A solid bullet, travelling 
at high velocity, is necessary to kill these animals, for a soft -nosed bullet 
opens and remains in the matted shield of hair and will not penetrate 
except if it strikes the legs or the region of the heart or eyes. A friend who 
has shot musk oxen in Greenland tells me that he fired five shots with 
expanding bullets at a bull behind the shoulder, and that he found all these 
embedded in wads of hair after he had killed the animal with a single shot 
from a solid pointed bullet. 
Colonel Feilden, who has also killed these animals in Greenland, thinks 
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