58 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS 



the beach, searching for carcases amongst the 

 sleeping seal herd. If a body was found they tore 

 it to pieces and dragged the fragments away ; what 

 they did not eat immediately was buried under 

 stones, but anything that the crew buried was sought 

 out with tireless patience and finally grubbed up 

 with exasperating success. 



Irritated by the continual annoyance, the sailors 

 killed the foxes right and left ; so daring were the 

 animals that they could easily be enticed within 

 sticking distance by holding out a piece of flesh. 

 Steller, who accompanied the party, states that he 

 slew over two hundred with his own hands, and that 

 on the third day after his arrival he clubbed in three 

 hours over seventy foxes, whose skins he utilised as 

 a covering for his tent. In short, when the party at 

 last left the Commander Islands, in a craft of their 

 own manufacture, they took with them a valuable 

 cargo of furs (including many fox-pelts) a substantial 

 compensation for the miseries which they had under- 

 gone. The fur industry of the Northern Pacific may 

 be said to date from 1741 ; for many subsequent 

 voyagers fitted out expeditions to hunt (amongst 

 other animals) the valuable white foxes. 



The present species was the Canis lagopus 

 described by Linnaeus in the twelfth edition of his 

 " Systema Naturae" published in 1766; Pennant 

 also figured the animal fairly well as plate 162 of his 

 " History of Quadrupeds," the dark summer coat 



