50 
MUSK-OX. 
like Sir George and many others, and of so powerful a corporation as the 
Hudson’s Bay Fur Company. 
Dr. Richardson in a note explains a mistake made by Pennant, who 
appears to have confounded the habitat of the Musk-Ox with that of the 
bison and states that our animal is found on the lands of the Cris or Cris- 
tinaux and Jlssinibouls, which are plains extending from the Red river of 
Lake Winnipeg to the Saskatchewan, on which tracts the buffalo is 
frequently found, but not the Musk-Ox. 
The accounts of old writers, having reference to an animal found in 
New Mexico, which Pennant refers to the Musk-Ox, may be based upon 
the existence of the Rocky Mountain sheep in that country, which 
having been imperfectly described, has led some authors to think the 
Musk-Ox was an inhabitant of so southern a locality. 
“The country Lequented by the Musk-Ox is mostly rocky, and destitute 
of wood except on the banks of the larger rivers, which are generally more 
or less thickly clothed with spruce trees. Their food is similar to that of 
the caribou — grass at one season and lichens at another ; and the contents 
of their paunch are eaten by the natives with the same relish that they 
devour the ‘nerrooJcs’ of the reindeer. The droppings of the Musk-Ox 
take the form of round pellets, differing from those of the caribou only in 
their greater 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 highly 
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 climbs hills or rocks with great ease. One, pursued on the banks of 
the Coppermine, scaled a lofty sand cliff, having so great an acclivity 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, supposed that 
they kill each other in their contests for the cows. If the hunters keep 
themselves concealed when they fire upon a herd of Musk-Oxen, the poor 
animals mistake the noise for thunder, and, forming themselves into a 
