The musk-ox comes in thousands every year to the great northern lakes, while the mink, marten, beaver, otter, ermine and musk-rat are sought by the fur-trader.
Apparently the musk-ox (Ovibos moschatus) has little or no near relationship to either the oxen or the sheep; and it is not improbable that its affinities are with the Asiatic takin (Budorcas) and the extinct European Criotherium of the Pliocene of Samos.
In height a bull musk-ox stands about 5 ft.
The skull, which is probably that of a female, differs from the ordinary musk-ox by the much smaller and shorter horn-cores, which are widely separated in the middle line of the skull, where there is a groove-like depression running the whole length of the forehead.
A third type of musk-ox skull is, however, known from North America, namely one from the celebrated Big-Bone Lick, Kentucky, on which the genus and species Bootherium bombifrons was established, which differs from all the others by its small size, convex forehead and rounded horn-cores, the latter being very widely separated, and arising from the sides of the skull.
