404 singular Sagacity of the Rod or Ice Fox. 



herd of them one by one, and immediately drag away the 



dead cubs from their dams. 



Seeing, now, that they would not fuffer us to be at reft 

 night or day, we were in fa£t: fo cxafperated at them that 

 we killed them young and old, and plagued them by every 

 means we could devife. When the party awoke in the 

 morning;^ there always lay two or three at our feet, that had 

 been knocked on the head by fome of us in the night; and 

 I can fafely affirm, that, during my ftay on the ifland, I 

 flew above two hundred of them myfelf. The third day 

 after my arrival, I knocked down, within the fpace of three 

 hours, upwards of fcventy of them with a club. They were 

 fo ravenous that, with one hand, if we held to them a piece 

 of flefli, they would come to it,, although we might haVe a 

 Itick or ax in the other to knock them on the head. 



When thefe bufy animals could not get hold of what they 

 wanted, as the clothes we put ofFy &c, one of them would 

 void his excrement upon it, and all the others which pafled 

 would do the fame. From all circumftances it was clear tO' 

 us, that they had had very little communication with human 

 beings, and that the dread of man is not innate in bnites, 

 but muft be grounded on long experience. 



In Oftober and Nm'ember they, like the other foxes, were 

 the moft fleek and full of hair : in January and February the 

 growth of it is too thick: in April and. May they begin to , 

 flied their coats : in June and July they had only wool on 

 them, and looked as if they went in waiftcoats. In June they 

 drop thei/ cubs, nine or ten in a brood, in holes and cliffs 

 of the rocks. They are fo fond of their young, that,, to fcare 

 us away, they would bark and yelp like dogs, and thereby 

 betrayed their coverts. This mode of preferving their young, 

 probably, has procured them the name of ice or rock foxes. 

 No fooner do they perceive that their retreat is difcovcred, 

 than, unlefs difturbcd, thev drag away the young in thelc 

 mouths, and hide them in a more fecret place. On killing 

 the young, the dam follows the flayer with grievous bowl- 

 ings. 



