Volume 11, Plate III / Mammalia (Mammals)

Thibetian Musk

Moschus moschiferus

About the size of a small roebuck but thicker and clumsier, the Thibetian Musk is deep reddish-brown, paler beneath, with long, thick, crisp hair and flat recurved tusks projecting an inch from the mouth. Inhabiting the mountains between China and Tartary toward the Indus and Lake Baikal, it climbs precipices with chamois-like agility, feeds in winter on lichens and in summer on rhododendron leaves, and is hunted chiefly for the musk secreted in the male’s belly bag.