36 EXPERIMENTS. 



" Two days subsequently, the young black female littered 

 six cubs, all of which were black. On comparing the black 

 cubs of the two litters together, those of the black female 

 seemed to be somewhat darker than the others." 



Everything now bid fair to solve the question, as to 

 whether the black and the barred-fox were accidental 

 varieties of the common-fox, or whether they were of a 

 separate species. Unfortunately, however, the hopes of 

 those interested in the subject were doomed to be dis- 

 appointed; for by a tissue of misfortunes, arising from 

 natural and accidental causes, nearly all the foxes perished 

 within a very short period ; which circumstance threw such a 

 damp on the spirits of the proprietors of the fox-colony, 

 that further experiments were not, I believe, prosecuted. 



Some remarks of General G. A. Hjerta, bearing on this 

 subject, are deserving of notice. After speaking of a black- 

 fox, caught by the late Governor Knut von Troil, in the 

 autumn of 1801, the gallant officer tells us: "What renders 

 the circumstance remarkable is, that although during pre- 

 ceding years, and even in 1802, barred-foxes had been 

 frequently captured thereabouts, yet after that period not a 

 single one had been seen. Hence it was concluded, and 

 with reason, that since the old black dog-fox was killed, 

 the race of barred-foxes had become extinct." 



What conclusion the reader may draw from the experi- 

 ments carried on at the Raf-koloni, and the observations 

 of General Hjerta, I cannot with certainty predict; but 

 to my notions, so far from gainsaying the existence of the 

 black or the crossed-fox (or rather the former perhaps), 

 as a separate species, they tend to confirm the contrary 

 hypothesis. Otherwise, why should a single pair of crossed- 



