THE BLACK FOX. 177 



or night to ponder over schemes for his capture ; the 

 martin and mink traps are for a time neglected, and every 

 artifice, every trick and ingenuity that ever entered 

 trapper's brain, is at once put into practice. Nor is this 

 fox less wary than his confreres, but quite the reverse ; 

 and I believe in the current opinion that there is no animal 

 more difficult to circumvent. Often of an evening I have 

 listened to the broken English of the snake-eyed aborigines, 

 or the curious patois of the Canadian habitant, recapitu- 

 lating how they all but succeeded on such and such an 

 occasion, or were rewarded with success upon another. By 

 the bright glow of a wood fire, illuminating the unhewn 

 log walls, rough chinking and shingle roof of a frontier 

 cabin, the cold and bitter night being made doubly severe 

 by the howling blasts that impetuously rush with angry 

 noise through the disturbed trees, these narratives of 

 perseverance and hardship form a pleasant way of passing 

 the long wintry night. The cup goes round, the pipe is 

 smoked, and the company, although illiterate and 

 unpolished, possess one great quality sincerity. If they 

 quaff your health or shake your hand, it is not an empty 

 form, but one which emanates from genuine friendship and 

 unselfish feelings. 



There are no distinctive differences between the black 

 and red fox excepting colour, save it be that the fur of the 

 former is much finer : but this can satisfactorily be 

 accounted for by his residence being always in much colder 

 latitudes ; in fact, his chief resorts appear to be the inter- 

 mediate space between the homes of the red and Arctic 

 representatives. Nevertheless, I claim that he is of different 



12 



