MUSK-OX. 
211 
and the temperature lowest, and it inhabits that country and North Greenland 
throughout the year. “ The musk-oxen travel in herds, and it is but an exception 
when one of them is found alone. This herding gives them a better chance to 
defend themselves against their one enemy, the Arctic wolf, and also gives them 
through close contact, additional warmth and protection against cold and winds. ” 
Hunting Occasionally, we are also informed by Mr. Biederbeck, the Eskimo 
undertake an expedition into the interior for the purpose of hunting 
the musk-ox for the sake of its warm pelage, which is used either for their own 
bedding, or as an article of barter. The animals are hunted by means of dogs, each 
hunter taking two or three of these animals with their sledge-traces attached, and 
thus allowing himself to be pulled along till within a short distance of the quarry. 
AT BAT. 
The difficulty is then to slip the dogs at the right moment without allowing their 
traces to drag behind them, and thus be liable to be trodden on by the bayed musk¬ 
oxen ; but clever hunters obviate this by tying the traces in a bundle on the backs 
of the dogs just before they are slipped. When bayed and surrounded, the members 
of the herd are shot down by the score, the great object being to kill each animal 
outright, as otherwise there is great danger of its struggles inducing a stampede 
among the herd, which would involve another hunt. Sometimes, however, the 
herd, even after having made a bolt, will return to the spot where their comrades 
have fallen. When scenting danger, the musk-oxen, says Mr. Biederbeck, “ always 
retreat to some elevation near by, and upon the approach of the enemy they form 
in a perfect line, their heads toward their foe; or, if attacked at more than one 
point, they form a circle, their glaring, blood-shot eyes restlessly watching the 
