MUSK-OX. 
48 
short hair unmixed with wool ; hoofs, flat, small in proportion to the size 
of the animal, and resembling those of the reindeer. The cow differs from 
the bull in having smaller horns (the bases of which, instead of touching 
each other, are separated by a hairy space), and in the hair on the throat 
and chest being shorter. The female is considerably smaller than the 
male. 
COLOUR. 
The general colour of the hair of the body is brown ; on the neck and 
between the shoulders it is of a grizzled hue, being dull light-brown, fading 
on the tips into brownish-white ; on the centre of the back it presents a 
soiled whitish colour, forming a mark which is aptly termed by Captain 
Pjirry the saddle. The hips are dark-brown, and the sides, thighs, and 
belly, nearly black ; the short soft hairs on the nose and lips are whitish, 
with a tinge of reddish-brown ; legs, brownish-white ; tips of horns, and 
hoofs, black ; tail, dark brown. 
DIMENSIONS. 
Length from nose to root of tail, about 
Feet. Inches. 
- 5 6 
HABITS. 
For our description and account of the habits of this very peculiai 
animal we have resorted to other authors, never having ourselves had an 
opportunity of seeing it alive, and in fact knowing it only from the 
specimen in the British Museum, from which our figures were drawn, and 
which is the only one hitherto sent to Europe, so difficult is it to procure 
the animal and convey the skin, with the skull, leg bones, &c., in a 
tolerable state of preservation, from the barren lands of the northern 
portions of British America, where it is found, and where an almost 
perpetual winter and consequent scarcity of food make it very difficult to 
prevent the Indians, or white hunters either, from eating (we should say 
devouring) everything that can by any possibility serve to fill their empty 
stomachs — even skins, hoofs, and the most refuse parts of any animal they 
kill. 
To give a better idea of the effects of hunger on man, at times, in these 
wild and desert countries, we will relate a case that happened to Dr. 
Richardson while upon an expedition. One of his men, a half-breed and 
a bad fellow, it was discovered, had killed a companion with whom he had 
