Musk ox

“ THE Musk Ox is strictly an Arctic animal and is not to be met with below the circle. The northern part of Greenland and Grantland, the Barren Grounds east of Mackenzie River, and the Arctic Islands, north of Hudson Bay, is the home of our musky friend. He is not handsome, but is majestic in appearance, measuring six and one-half feet long and four and one-half feet high. ”

“ The musk-ox lives mostly in herds of a score or more, and, contrary to what we would naturally suppose, it runs with great speed, and climbs rocky hills with facility. The flesh of the young animals is very good, but that of the older ones is too strongly impregnated with musk to be palatable to white men, although the Indians and Esquimaux may not seriously object to it. ”

“ Wherever explorers have gone into Eastern Arctic North America they have found the musk-ox. Lieutenant Peary, who has spent more time in the Arctic than any other living man, writes that he has killed musk-oxen at Cape Bryant on the Northwest Coast, and at the extreme northern end of Greenland Archipelago, north latitude 83° 39 ́, and it appears from lack of records to the contrary that they are found on all the Arctic islands except, curiously enough, the Islands of Spitzbergen and Franz Josef Land, where they are unknown. ”

“ I have seen a single musk-ox back up against a rock. Apparently they feel safe only when they get their sterns up against something.
Hunting musk-oxen on the Arctic Coast or the Arctic islands after the manner of the polar expeditions, is a much simpler proposition. There the hunters are always comparatively near their base of supplies, and, from all accounts, the musk-oxen are more numerous than they are in the interior. According to Frederick Schwatka, the Innuits hunt musk-oxen with great skill. They hitch their dogs to the sledge differently from the method of the Indians to the south. ”

“ They slope downward at the sides, and then curve forward and outward, at the same time tapering to a sharp point, which renders them efficient weapons. These characteristics, although intermediate between those of the sheep and the ox, are more strongly inclined to the former. In reality, however, the musk-ox is more goat-like than sheep-like, as is indicated by its covering of hair, its short sturdy legs, the cannon-bone being remarkably short, and its ability as a climber. ”

“ The range of the musk-ox at the present time does not extend westward to within three hundred miles of the Mackenzie delta. Any information concerning the musk-ox gathered around Point Barrow and thence south to Bering Straits and Port Clarence, has been obtained from natives who have accompanied whaling ships to the East; and all the musk-ox skins that find a market in San Francisco have been purchased, directly or indirectly, from the whaling ships. ”

“ Musk ox hunting is not, as a rule, exciting sport. The skinning and cleaning of the game, often in a cutting wind and low temperature, and the carrying of the meat on board the ship, involved a good deal of labour. Upon a subsequent occasion one of our hunters conceived the happy idea of making a wounded ox carry his own beef towards the ship, but the beast resented direction, refused even to be led by the horns, and finally overthrew his captor, and had to be despatched incontinently. They rarely attack, and can generally be approached within rifle range with little trouble. ”

“ Away back in the dim ages, the Musk Ox roamed over Europe and Asia and in North America, as far south as Kentucky, Missouri and Utah. They are not inclined to be savage unless attacked. They are of great service to the people who inhabit the Arctic countries. ”

“ Musk oxen are gregarious, going in flocks of 20 or 30, or rarely as many as 80 or 100, and are said to be very sheep-like in their habits. Although the legs are so short, they run with speed, and can climb steep slopes and clamber over rocks with remarkable agility. The young are produced, one at a time, at the end of May or early in June, and the rutting season is in September. The food of the musk ox is grass, moss, lichens, and tender shoots of willow and pine. ”

“ I am staggered by the fact that a warm-blooded animal, quite sheep-like in its general nature and mode of life, and which lives well in New York City, can survive and thrive and breed and be happy on the most northerly land in the world. The fact that whole herds of musk-ox can find food throughout the awful Arctic night, survive storms of unbelievable violence and duration, and cold that the human mind scarce can comprehend,—and voluntarily live under such conditions,—seems almost beyond belief. ”

“ It is probable, if we get near enough to one of them, that we shall have no trouble in shooting him; but there is sometimes danger in this sport. A sailor once went out to hunt musk-oxen, and, to his great surprise, soon found that they intended to hunt him. A herd got after him, and one big fellow was on the point of crushing him with his great horns, when he dodged behind a rock, against which the furious animal came like a battering-ram.
In the fall and winter the flesh of the musk-ox is very good indeed, but in the spring it is not so nice. ”

“ It seems even possible that in the dim ages, the musk-ox had a wider and much more southern distribution, for the skull from which the extinct type bombifrons was named, was found in Kentucky, another having been found also in Arkansas. Fossil remains of musk-oxen have been unearthed in Siberia, Alaska, Grinnell Land, and Northern Europe. There is no authentic data of their having been found in Alaska within the memory of present living man, and they do not range within two hundred miles of the Mackenzie River, which is laid down as their western limit. ”

“ As part of the produce of the late voyage, sixty-eight Musk Oxen will be noticed; ten of these were from East Greenland, the remainder from the mainland of Arctic America in the form of skins procured from the natives. This is sad reading, for not only does it threaten the extinction of this most interesting animal, but also of one of the food supplies of the Indians and Esquimaux of this sterile land, who maintain at the best a very precarious existence on the flesh of the Reindeer, the Walrus, and the Musk Ox ”

“ The following representation of the head is from a specimen in the British Museum.
[Pg 115]
THE MUSK OX. Bos Moschatus.
The Musk-ox, in its external appearance, more nearly resembles the Yak of Thibet than any other member of the Bos genus; and they both inhabit mountainous districts near regions of perpetual snow.
The horns of the Musk Bull are remarkably broad at their bases, which are closely united; they bend down on each side of the head, with an outward curve turning upwards towards their ends, which taper to a sharp point. ”

“ The Musk-Ox inhabits the Barren Grounds of northern Canada north of Latitude 64° from Great Bear Lake to Hudson Bay, Grant Land, and the northeast coast of Greenland from Franz Josef Fiord (Latitude 70°) to the most 32 northerly point of land. About twenty living specimens have been taken when very young at Franz Josef Fiord, by Swedish and Norwegian whaling parties. The Peary Arctic Club, of New York, presented to the New York Zoological Society a young calf which was captured by Commander Peary at Fort Conger, in 1902, but it lived only a few months. ”

“ A full-grown musk-ox measures about 8 feet in length, inclusive of the short tail, and is 3 feet, 8 or 9 inches in height at the shoulders. The thick-set, shaggy body is supported on short stout legs, and the feet are broad, to serve both as scrapers in clearing away the snow from the moss and herbage on which it lives and in climbing ice-covered slopes. ”

“ The Indians, who do not now hunt musk-oxen as much as formerly owing to the lessened demand for the pelt, usually go in parties of four to six; never less than four, because they would be unable to carry a wood supply adequate to getting far enough into the Barren Grounds for reasonable hope of securing the game; and rarely more than six, because when they have got as far into the country as six sledges of wood will permit, they have either got what they want, or they have had enough of freezing and starving to impel a start homeward. ”

“ Caribou are absolutely essential to penetration of the Barren Grounds, because from the woods to where musk-oxen are found is a considerable distance, and no possible meat except that supplied by these members of the deer family. Nor is a trip into the Barren Grounds always rewarded with musk-oxen. Many Indian parties have gone in and failed to see even a track, and many others have skirmished along the edge, dreading to plunge into the interior, and hopeful perhaps of a stray ox. ”

“ When they have caught up with the musk-ox herd, he then looses them and he is there to begin action. The Eskimo dogs are very superior in breed to those used by the Indians farther south, and are trained as well to run mute.
The chances of getting musk-oxen in the Barren Grounds are not so good in summer as in winter, because travelling by canoe you are, of course, bound to keep to the chain of lakes, and your course is therefore prescribed, it being impossible to travel over the land at will as it is in winter when all is frozen. One day’s hunting is about like another. ”

“ Baby Musk Ox is wide-eyed and innocent in appearance, but he gives us such startling shocks sometimes by his deep rooted intelligence that his appearance quite belies him. He is gentle and makes a fine pet if taken when young. ”

“ Mr. Tyrrell in his report of his explorations along Dubawnt and Kazan rivers states that the habitat of the musk-ox seems to be confined to that country north of the portion of Dubawnt river between Dubawnt lake and Hudson bay. None were seen in the course of either of the two expeditions mentioned, but Eskimos met with at the head of Chesterfield inlet had a number of fresh skins. The Eskimos on Kazan river reported to Mr. Tyrrell that there were no musk-oxen in their neighbourhood. ”

“ An animal of rare intelligence, the hare is quick to grasp an advantage, and therefore as winter advances we find it a constant companion of the musk ox. For in the diggings of the musk ox this little creature finds sufficient food uncovered for its needs.
With a skeleton as light as that of the bird and a skin as frail as paper it is nevertheless as well prepared to withstand the rigors of the Arctic as the bear with its clumsy anatomy. The entire makeup of the hare is based upon the highest strain of animal economy. ”

“ A hare that was shot gave them the first full meal for nearly forty days. With snow falling around them, and without tent or covering of any kind, they lay down on the ground to sleep.
Waking in the morning as tired and hungry as ever, they found the tracks of musk-oxen [Footnote: Musk-oxen: the musk-ox has long shaggy hair and somewhat resembles a buffalo.] in the snow, and their hopes rose as they endeavoured to follow the trail. Sweeping the valley with their field-glass, they could see no sign of a living thing ”

“ This was during the Pleistocene division of geological history, when glacial ice covered all of Canada and the arctic animals were crowded southward. As the ice melted and its southern margin receded, the musk-ox moved northward. The absence of this species in northern Europe and Asia, where the climatic conditions, nature of the vegetation, etc., are similar to those of its present home, is perhaps due to the influence of man. The successful introduction of the domesticated reindeer into Alaska suggests that beneficial results would follow the transplanting of the musk-ox to northern Siberia. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It may as well be stated in this place that the spot where the animals were shot was about thirty miles inland from the home of Docak, and a great many leagues south of Upernavik, the most northernmost settlement on the Greenland coast. It is beyond this quaint Arctic town, in the neighborhood of Melville Bay, that the musk ox has his true habitat. There, although the animals are diminishing in number, he may be found by any one who chooses to hunt for him. ”

“ Jack carried in his hat about a dozen eggs; and Fritz had shot a couple of heath fowls, a cock and hen.
We sat down to supper, Franz eager to partake of his capybara. Even he himself made a face at the peculiar flavour of the meat.
“It is the musk which you taste,” said I; and I described to them the various animals in which this strange liquid is found; called the musk-deer, musk-ox, crocodile, musk-rat of India (also soudeli, which taints a corked bottle of wine, if it only runs across it) , concluding with an account of the civet, called also civet-cat. ”

“ In another half hour’s running, as I worked up the near side of a rather higher and broader ridge than any we had crossed, I heard the dogs barking, and speeding to the top, what was my disappointment, not to say distress, at [Pg 24] beholding twenty-five to thirty musk-oxen just startled into running along a ridge about a quarter of a mile beyond Seco, who, with his dogs, was in full chase after them about fifty yards ahead of me. ”

“ In the summer the musk ox live almost entirely on the green leaves of the small willows that grow in patches in the Barren Ground, and do not in this part of the country confine themselves entirely to moss all the year round, as I have seen stated. ”