The terrestrial mammals and bii'ds of North-East Greenland. 45 



force the open cracks and small holes which it comes across on its 

 way, if the cold is not too severe, and as a rule it does not leave 

 the route once chosen on account of such insignificant impediments. 



In a single case hoAvever, I witnessed how a fox got his coat 

 wet, very much against his will. From the top of the little rocky 

 island Maroussia facing towards the field ice, I saw one afternoon in 

 the end of October 1907 a blue fox trotting about among the distant 

 ice-bergs. At last the fox made his course right for the island, run- 

 ning very quickly, probably intending to spend the night here, 

 where several lemmings were to be found. It was freezing hard — 

 about -^ 30. In order to reach the island, the fox was obliged to 

 pass a belt of open water, cut by the current, in which some larger 

 and smaller patches of ice were drifting about. In the immediate 

 neighbourhood of the island a very thin layer of new ice without 

 any flakes had just been formed. With astonishing precision and 

 elegance, the agile animal jumped at first from one patch of ice to 

 another, till it reached the edge of the treacherous new ice. Cau- 

 tiously the fox tried with his fore paws the bearing-capacity of the 

 latter, setting out afterwards — not without the most evident hesi- 

 tation — to cross the glassy plane. Suddenly the ice broke. For a 

 long while the attempts of the fox to gain a firm footing by swim- 

 ming away from the coast did not succeed, the ice breaking down 

 on all sides. At last the poor animal was fortunate enough to get 

 up on the nearest drifting flake of ice, apparently extremely exhausted 

 from his cold bath. After having shaken his coat several times, the 

 fox began to work upon it with his tongue. For about an hour 

 he was busily occupied in this way. With the funniest twists of 

 his body he tried to lick every spot of his coat all over. At length 

 the darkness had fallen, yet the short distance permitted me to di- 

 stinguish the fox, as he was jumping from flake to flake like an 

 India-rubber ball, till at last he disappeared for ever in the endless 

 space. 



In the summer time the arctic fox may easily supply itself with 

 food in abundance. On the snowless ground it gains admission to 

 the lemming without difficulty, and in years less favourable to the 

 lemmings, it will find ample nourishment in the brood of the birds. 

 During my permanent summer residences in the district near Storm- 

 kap, I almost daily met with foxes on the breeding places of the 

 small wading-birds. Some of my "observation nests" had been pil- 

 laged by the fox which easily found its way to them, guided by 

 my foot-prints. 



Along the shores of inlets and freshwater lakes I often came 

 across traces of the fox, and I suppose that verj^ likely it will 



