Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 1 (1877).djvu/383

Rh Greenland. Dr. Robert Brown, in his 'Essay on the Physical Structure of Greenland,' published by the Geographical Society for the use of the recent Arctic Expedition, thus refers to this range of the Musk-ox, Lemming and Ermine:—"These illustrations, though seemingly trivial in themselves, are yet of extreme zoo-geographical interest as tending to show that the Greenland land must end not far north of latitude 82° or 83°." In the month of August, 1875, we met with abundant traces of the Musk-ox in the Valley of the Twin Glacier, leading inland from the shores of Buchanan Strait. I noticed where these animals had been sheltering themselves under the lee of big boulders, as sheep do on bleak hill-sides, and that the same spots were frequently occupied was shown by the holes tramped out by the animals, and the large quantities of their long soft wool which was scattered around. Musk-oxen were obtained in considerable numbers near to the winter-quarters of the 'Discovery,' over forty being shot; but in the extreme north of Grinnell Land, nearer to the winter-quarters of the 'Alert,' they were much scarcer, only six having been obtained by the crew of that vessel, whilst at Thank God Harbour, where the 'Polaris' Expedition obtained over a score, only one was seen and shot. The range of the Musk-ox in Grinnell Land is confined to the coast line and the valleys debouching thereon. It is an animal by no means fitted to travel through the deep soft snow which blocks up the heads of all these valleys. On one occasion, in Westward Ho! Valley, in the month of May, Lieut. Egerton, R.N., and I came across fresh tracks of this animal in soft snow, through which it had sunk belly-deep, ploughing out a path, and leaving fragments of wool behind in its struggles. Its progression under such circumstances is similar to that of a snowplough. We noticed that spots on hill-sides where the snow lay only a few inches deep had been selected for feeding grounds, the snow having been pushed away in furrows banked up at the end, as if the head and horns of the animal had been used for the task; a few blades of grass and roots of willow showed on what they had been feeding. The dung of the Musk-ox, though usually dropped in pellets like sheep or deer, is very often undistinguishable from that of the genus Bos. No person, however, watching this animal in a state of nature, could fail to see how essentially ovine are its actions. When alarmed they gather together like a flock of sheep herded by a collie dog, and the way in which they pack closely