THE STORY OF THE FOX. 



289 



Accordingly, in good time the fox came to the top of the cHff and 

 looked over. He then let himself down the face of the cliff by a movement 

 between a leap and a slide, and landed on a shelf not quite a foot in width 

 about ten feet down. 



The fox then disappeared in a hole above the shelf. On examination 

 the shelf turned out to be the mouth of a wide fissure in the rock, into 

 which the fox always escaped. 



S^>^^^^ 



ARCTIC FOX WITH MURRE'S EGG. 



But how was he to get out again? He might slide down ten feet, but 

 he could never leap ten feet from a ten-inch shelf up the face of a per- 

 pendicular rock. This impossibility caused me to make a search, and at 

 length I discovered an easier entrance into the cave from the level ground. 



The fox was too wise to use that entrance when the hounds were be- 

 hind him, so he was accustomed to cut short the scent by dropping down 



