not for necessaries only, but for luxuries they did better without in the past. The Musk Ox is one of the easiest of wild animals to approach, and as the demand for their skins is unlimited and the supply very much the reverse, it is by no means unlikely that the species will be exterminated before its life-history is fully studied by naturalists. Although not difficult to capture, and easy to manage when young,[1] the only living examples which have hitherto been brought to this country are two young ones, unfortunately both males, recently added to the Duke of Bedford's collections at Woburn.
The above are not the whole of these animals which have been captured during the past year; fortunately those I am about to mention were made a better use of. Dr. Nathrost, writing of his recent expedition to East Greenland (Geo. Jour. Nov. 1899, vol. xiv. pp. 534–37), and referring to the zoological results of the voyage, says, "We have secured twenty-eight Musk Oxen, all of which were prepared in some way or other, so that we had skeletons, skins, all the interior parts, brains, &c, brought home." This is well so far, but he also mentions "the fact that the White Polar Wolves have made an invasion around the northern part of Greenland along the whole coast, at least to Scoresby Sound," and that "the Reindeer are now very scanty in consequence of their having been killed by the Wolves," a fate too likely to be shared by the Musk Oxen.
My thanks, as on former occasions, are especially due to Mr. Michael Thorburn, of St. John's, Newfoundland, and Mr. Robert Kinnes, of Dundee, for their kindness in supplying me with much valuable information.
- ↑ See Buffalo Jones's 'Forty Years of Adventure,' p. 382, et seq., for an account of lassoing young Musk Oxen near Chesterfield Inlet.
