May 17, 1913 
FOREST AND STREAM 
623 
The Muskoxen 
Go through the previous study with a dry 
nine-thread line substituted for the wet 21 spe¬ 
cial. In the first place, there is a reduction in 
weight, consequently a greater speed, which 
means more rigidity and less fall from the tra¬ 
jectory. Its smaller caliber means less drag 
on the lead, consequently less abruptness in the 
downward journey. The thumb-stall has been 
doing yeoman work early in the cast, but the 
pressure has been lightening until the speed of 
the reel just equals that of the sinker and the 
thumb is no longer touching. 
Modified by the influence of the wind, this 
ideal can be reached by any one who will de¬ 
vote a little time to study and practice. It 
would seem that one glimpse of the nine-thread 
line hanging for an instant high in the air as 
the lead strikes the earth, and then crumpling 
and sinking slowly downward, should be enough 
to convert the last advocate of the wet line to 
the dry. 
The prophetic eye perceives, stepping to the 
casting point, a contestant with a dry nine-thread 
line. His rod is powerful, tried and true, an 
American surf rod. His reel oiled and adjusted 
to a hair. A light air is blowing on his back. 
All the conditions are in his favor, as he meas¬ 
ures with his eye the length of line from tip to 
sinker. Carefully he throws the switch on his 
reel and takes a long reach backward. Then, 
swinging the power of every muscle in legs, 
hips, back, shoulders, arms and wrists in suc¬ 
cession, into that rod as it moves forward, he 
sends through it a wave of force, which termi¬ 
nates in a pronounced “whip” as it reaches the 
tip, and away goes the lead. A hundred, two 
hundred, three hundred feet—will it never stop? 
The measurers turn and run toward the back 
of the lot as it passes them. One of them 
throws his hat into the air. Excitedly, they 
measure back to the 300-foot line. They an¬ 
nounce the cast is 350 feet, and a great shout 
breaks out as it is realized that the world’s 
record has come to America. 
“Fine!” say the wet line casters. “Why 
don't you do it?” 
“Somebody will do it,” reply the dry line 
fellows, “but perhaps he is still losing chances 
with a wet line." 
Shooting in British Columbia. 
Vancouver, B. C., May i .—Editor Forest 
and Stream: I beg to acknowledge receipt of 
your letter of the 19th ult., and note that you 
are contemplating a hunting trip this fall. 
I have no hesitation in advising you to go 
into the Cassiar District, where you are quite 
certain to obtain good sport — moose, caribou, 
sheep, goat and bear, and you will also have 
no difficulty in obtaining a reliable guide and 
equipage. 
I would suggest that you communicate with 
Messrs. Hyland and Belfrey, outfitters at Tele¬ 
graph Creek, as they are in touch with all the 
guides and have always given satisfaction to 
sportsmen in making arrangements for them. 
They will also give you full Information as to 
communications, etc., and prices for the trip. 
If you have not the time to spare to go 
into the Cassiar, you could take a shorter trip 
in the Lillooet District, where you would be 
certain to get good sheep and mule deer. 
A. Bryan Williams, 
Provincial Game Warden. 
P erhaps no naturalist has done so much to 
throw light on the larger, hoofed game of 
North America as Dr. J. A. Allen, of the 
American Museum of Natural History. His 
monograph on the American Bison, Recent and 
Extinct, is the final word on this group. He 
has written much on the wild sheep of America, 
and recently has published as one of the 
Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural 
History a large and interesting quarto volume 
on the muskoxen, dealing with their develop¬ 
ment and variations, and giving a systematic 
review of the muskox group, recent and extinct. 
Of late years, since the Arctic regions came 
to be more and more frequently visited and 
crossed, much has been learned about the musk¬ 
oxen, which were once scattered over northern 
North America, as well as northern Europe. 
They constitute a circumpolar group, formerly 
found, in one form or another, as far south 
as the Ohio River, Arkansas and New Mexico 
in the new world, and France, Germany and 
Austria in the old. Of recent material, the 
American Museum of Natural History pos¬ 
sesses nearly 140 specimens, and in other 
museums there is additional recent material, be¬ 
sides several so-called fossil forms. 
Dr. Allen’s paper opens with a discussion 
of the development of the horns, from the foetal 
stage to old age, of the teeth, skull, pelage and 
coloration. It considers individual variation, as 
indicated by the skull; gives tables of measure¬ 
ments and conclusions drawn from them, and 
has something to say about secondary se.xual 
differentiation. 1'he second part of the work, 
from page 157 to its close, page 226, is devoted 
to a systematic review of the muskox group, 
discussing its discovery, geographical distribu¬ 
tion, relationships, and a comparison with cer¬ 
tain fossil forms. He gives descriptions and 
the distribution of the existing recognized 
forms; tells of the prospects of the extermina¬ 
tion of the species, something of the methods 
of hunting it, and of the muskox in zoological 
gardens, of which New York probably has the 
largest representation of specimens. Follow¬ 
ing this is a description of fossil forms closely 
related to the muskox, an explanation of the 
eight beautiful plates, and of the 45 text figures, 
and a bibliography of the muskox, running from 
1720 to 1912. 
Although the muskox is a species of cir¬ 
cumpolar distribution, and although its ances¬ 
tors were distributed over the old world and 
the new. recent muskoxen are known only from 
North America and Greenland. Up to within 
a comparatively short time it was believed that 
the Mackenzie River was its westernmost limit, 
although as long ago as 1826 muskox remains 
were found in Alaska. Since that time abundant 
remains have been found there, and recently 
Dr. R. M. Anderson and V. Stefansson brought 
back from Alaska accounts which seem to show 
that within forty or fifty years these animals 
ranged over the tundra of northern Alaska. i\Ir. 
Stefansson tells of a man who died near Cape 
Smythe (Point Barrow) who had seen live 
muskoxen in that neighborhood. He is sup¬ 
posed to have been born between 1845 and 1850. 
Another northern traveler, Frank Russell, 
quotes the natives at Point Barrow as saying 
that their fathers killed the muskoxen, which 
were then abundant. There is much more in¬ 
teresting material about the distribution of the 
muskox and its extinction within modern times 
from regions where once it was abundant. 
The systematic position of the muskox has 
been much discussed by naturalists, none of 
whom had adequate material for the study of 
the species. This material, as already stated. 
Dr. Allen possesses, and he finds that the com¬ 
monly accepted statement that the muskox is 
