Читать книгу The White Czar. A Story of a Polar Bear онлайн

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The Musk Ox is the least known of all the large North American animals. This is because he ranges so far northward and it is only since 1900 that specimens have been taken captive and brought to civilization to be studied. His range is around the arctic circle, from sixty-nine degrees to seventy-five.

Commander Peary shot a musk ox within half a mile of the northern point of Greenland, the most northerly land in the world.

Although Omingmong has the name of musk ox yet he possesses some sheep characteristics. His hair is so long that his outline is quite hidden. The outer hair is nearly a foot in length and brushes on the snow when he walks. It also nearly hides his rather slight spindle legs. Imagine, if you can, an animal about four and a half feet tall and six and a half long, covered with a thick long coat which hides all but the face and the strange horns and you have a fairly good picture of Omingmong. His horns are really quite as characteristic as the rest of his queer makeup. On the forehead they are very much flattened, so that they form a sort of helmet for the head.