By Commander Robert E. Peary, U. S. Navy
On the Fourth of July, 1899, in a broad level valley in the heart of Ellermore Land, I came upon a herd of five musk-oxen. When they saw us they ran together and stood back to back in star form, with heads outward, This is their usual method of defense against walrus, their only enemies in this land. After they were shot, I discovered two tiny calves, which till then had been hidden under their mothers’ hairy bodies.
Such funny little coal-black creatures they were, with a gray patch on their foreheads, great, soft black eyes, enormously large, bony knock-kneed legs, and no tails at all!
With the falling of the last musk-ox, my dogs made a rush for the little animals, which, though wide-eyed and trembling with fear, showed a bold front to the savage unknown creatures which surrounded them. Fortunately, I was too quick for the dogs, and rescued the little fellows.
Then I hardly knew what to do. I had not the heart to kill them myself, nor to tell my Eskimos to, Finally, I thought I would try to get them to the ship, fifty miles away, though I did not know how I was to do this over the miles of mountains and rough ice.
After the dogs were fastened, the little fellows stood quietly by the bodies of their mothers till all the animals were skinned and cut up; but when we were ready to start for camp, and had put a line about their necks to lead them away, they struggled so violently at the touch of the rope that, knowing they would soon strangle themselves to death, I had the ropes taken off. Then we tried to drive them, but could not. Then I remembered my experience years before at far-off Independence Bay, and told Abngmaloktok to throw one of the musk-ox skins over his back and walk off.
With a baa-a-a the little fellows were at his heels in an instant, and with noses buried in the long hair trailing behind him, followed contentedly, while the rest of us kept off the dogs.
In this way everything went nicely, and we scrambled along over the rocks, waded across two or three streams, and walked through an exquisitely soft, green little patch of meadow, cut by a gurgling crystal brook, until we reached the ice-boat, where the sledge had been left.
The part of the valley through which we passed seemed, in the bright light of the July sun, very summer-like, The space on the south side of the river, between it and the foot of the bluffs, protected from all winds, warmed by the sun throughout the twenty-four hours, watered continually by streams from the ice-cap, trickling down the bluffs, is a series of brilliant green-meadow patches, through which little crystal streams meander over beds of yellow sand and round rocks, like many a trout brook at home.
Flowers were numerous, and the brilliant148
