142 TJie Home of the Wohere/ie and Beaver. 



All the wolf tribe are in the habit of feigning 

 death when they find that escape is impossible, and 

 will often deceive even an experienced hunter. 

 Their tenacity of life is most extraordinary, and a 

 wolf that had been belaboured until it was thought 

 that every bone in its body was broken, has got up, 

 shaken itself, and slunk away apparently little the 

 worse. There is a smaller species of this animal 

 inhabiting the open country in America, and known 

 as the Prairie wolf, but into its habits I shall not 

 enter here. 



We now come to the foxes, of which there are 

 several kinds, all of which are eagerly sought after 

 by the fur hunter. The most beautiful of these is 

 the black or silver fox, whose skin stands second 

 only to the sea-otter in value, fetching from twenty- 

 five to forty guineas in the London market, whilst 

 a well-matched pair are more valuable still. A fox 

 may be said to be a fox all the world over, there- 

 fore I need say nothing of its shape, with which 

 everyone is familiar, but pass on to its valuable fur. 

 The body of the silver fox is clothed with two kinds 

 of hair, an outer and an inner coat. The longer or 

 outer hair extends two inches beyond the shorter 

 or under fur, especially on the neck, beneath the 

 throat, behind the shoulders, along the flanks, and 

 on die tail ; this hair is soft, glossy, and finer than 



