,4^i' On the Jtngular Sagacity 



have, in feveral places, called black, may have been that 

 dark green or almoft black colour which M. Miiller gives to 

 his Cercaria viridis, and which, no doubt, would have fhewn 

 itfelf under a microfcope of a ftronger magnifying power, if 

 I had been in pofleffion of one at the time. 



XV. Obfervations an the fitigular Sagacity of the Red or 

 Ice Fox *. 



D, 



URING my abode, fays Steller, on Behring's ifland, I 

 had opportunities, more than enough, of ftudying the nature 

 of this aniuial, far excelling the common fox in impudence, 

 cunning, and rogucr)'. The narrative of the innumerable 

 tricks they played us, inight eafily vie with Albertus Julius's 

 hiftory of the apes in the ifland of Saxenburg. They forced 

 thcmfelves into our habitations by night as well as by day. 

 Healing all they could carry off, even things that vi^ere of no 

 ufe to them; as knives, flicks, clothes, &c. They were fo 

 inconceivably ingenious as to roll down our caflcs of pro- 

 vifions feveral poods in weight, and then fteal the meat 

 out of them fo ably, that at firft we could not bring our- 

 ielves to afcribe the theft to them. As we were ftripping 

 an animal of its fkin, it often happened that we could not 

 avoid ftabbing two or three foxes, from their rapacity in tear- 

 ing the flefli out of our hands. If we buried it ever fo care- 

 fully, and added ftoncs to the weight of earth that was upon 

 it, they not only found it out, but flioved away the ftones, 

 as men would have done, with their fhoulders plying under 

 them, helping one another with all their might. If, think- 

 ing to ftcure it, we put any on the top of a high poft in the 

 air, they grubbed up the earth at the bottom, fo that the 

 poft and all came tumbling down, or one of them clam- 

 bered up and threw down what was upon it with incredible 

 artifice and dexterity. They watched all our motions, and J 



* From Thkc's Fitza of the RuJJlan Empire. 



accom- 



