ARCTIC FOXES. 473 



Nearly tlie whole of the winter and spring we kept 

 some prisoners in the engine-room ; in such close proxi- 

 mity to the coals they all turned black. Two of them died 

 of tubercles on the lungs. A beautiful grey fox had to 

 be garotted in the cabin for refractoriness ; another was 

 set free, and the last deserted the cage that we had made 

 it and put upon the ice near the ship. This desertion, 

 which was brought about by the melting and falling down 

 of the block of ice on which the cage stood, and which we 

 all witnessed from the deck, had something particularly 

 comical about it. The fox, which had almost waned away 

 to a skeleton, began to stretch himself, then to stick out 

 his bushy tail like a broom, wriggled his lanky body into 

 a pool of water, and lastly, as elegantly as a dancing- 

 master and as if longing for liberty, started off, without 

 deigning to cast another look at the ship. 



The European fox shuns mankind, but the Greenland 

 fox seeks his society in perfect innocence, and without 

 any suspicion, for it hopes to profit by him. It is the first, 

 after a fortunate day's hunting, to show its astonish- 

 ment, and also hasten to enjoy the spoil, as well as steal 

 a reindeer ham from the sledge in the night, and carry it 

 away. It accompanies him on hunting and sledge jour- 

 neys at a respectful distance, and employs his time of 

 rest in visiting, opening, and plundering the sack of pro- 

 visions. An ice-bound ship it watches with great favour, 

 for there is always some lucky chance bringing him 

 chance of profit, and things which can easily be carried 

 away. Indeed, it is so accustomed to spunging upon 

 others that it is often difficult to make him ashamed of 

 himself. 



If, after hours of constant gnawing, or, when in com- 



