Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 1 (1877).djvu/384

358 together and follow blindly the vacillating leadership of the old ram is unquestionably sheep-like. When thoroughly frightened they take to the hills, ascending precipitous slopes, and scaling rocks with great agility. How the Musk-ox obtains food during the long Arctic night is very extraordinary; but that it is a resident throughout the year cannot be doubted, as a month after the reappearance of sun-light, in the end of March, and at the very coldest season of the year, we found the fresh traces of these animals in the vicinity of our winter-quarters. I am quite sure that the number of Musk-oxen in Grinnell Land is extremely limited, whilst the means of subsistence can only supply the wants of a fixed number; consequently, after an invasion such as ours, when every animal capable of affording food was ruthlessly but necessarily slaughtered, it must take some years to restock the ground. I lay stress upon this point, because the programme for future American research by Smith Sound contemplates the establishment of colonies at various points, one especially suggested being the winter-quarters of the 'Discovery' in Lady Franklin Sound, and some reference has been made to the abundance of game likely to be obtained there. The cause of the disagreeable odour which frequently taints the flesh of these animals has received no elucidation from my observations. It does not appear to be confined to either sex, or to any particular season of the year; for a young unweaned animal killed at its mother's side, and transferred within an hour to the stew-pans, was as rank and objectionable as any. The flesh of some of these animals of which I have partaken was dark, tender, and as well-flavoured as that of four-year old South-down mutton. Richardson states that the food of the Musk-ox is at one season of the year grass, at another lichen. Leaves and stems of the willow, with grasses, were in the stomachs I examined. This animal is infested with two species of worms, a Tænia and a Filaria.

Rangifer tarandus.—The Reindeer was not actually met with by our Expedition to the northward of Port Foulke, but its newly-shed horns were found in the Valley of the Twin Glacier, Buchanan Strait. I came across a skeleton recently picked by wolves in the neighbourhood of Radmore Harbour, lat. 80° 27' N. At various points along the coast of Grinnell Land, further north, we came upon shed antlers, but these may have been of considerable