WILD ANIMALS. 103 black, nearly straight, and thick at the roots. The skin, particularly about the neck, is very thick. The heads of the bulls are of such immense size, that a man can scarcely lift one from the ground ; the heads of the cows are much smaller. The hair is soft, and curled, approaching to wool, of a sandy brown colour, and of an equal thickness over the body. The Indians, after reducing the skins, as they do all other skins, to an equal thickness, dress them in the hair for clothing, which is soft and durable. The flesh of the cows is tender, and much like beef; that of the bulls coarse and tough, but not unpleasant to the taste. The hunch on the back is a mere extension of the bones of the withers, surrounded, it is true, with flesh, but not a large fleshy lump, as is generally supposed. They are amazingly strong, will often bend down trees as thick as a man's arm, when rushing through the woods, and plunge along snow four or five feet deep with incredible swiftness ; they are not shy, and are easily shot. The musk ox, although it somewhat resembles, and has been confounded with, the buffalo, is a very different animal. They are generally met with in high latitudes, within the arctic circle, and occasionally, but not in great herds, far south of Hudson's Bay. They are fond of mountainous, barren ground, but are seldom found at any great distance from the woods. In size they are, when full grown, as large as the com¬ mon run of English cattle, but their legs are shorter, the hunch on their shoulder in proportion small, and their tail short. Though heavy, and apparently