THE FOX. 35 



If one of these little colonies could be laid open, a very cu- 

 rious sight would present itself. The earth would be seen to 

 be pierced with multitudinous tunnels, each complete and inde- 

 pendent in itself, and never interfering with burrows belonging 

 to other owners. Each burrow, too, is of a very complex char- 

 acter, and by no means consists of a single tunnel, with a rude 

 nest at the extremity. There are three or four distinct passages, 

 each of which opens into the common chamber, which is of con- 

 siderable dimensions, and serves as a starting-place whence the 

 inhabitant can seek refuge in either of its passages, according to 

 the direction in which it apprehends danger. 



This chamber is not, however, the nursery for the young, a 

 second cavity being used for that purpose. The nursery is not 

 of great dimensions, and communicates by a passage with the 

 chamber already mentioned. The reader will see, therefore, that 

 in some respects the habitation of the Arctic Fox corresponds 

 with that of the mole, both having a kind of fortress from which 

 a number of passages lead in different directions, and the nursery 

 being in both instances separate from the general habitation. 



Five or six young ones are mostly bred in these subterranean 

 nurseries; and in the outer chamber, and in several of the pas- 

 sages that lead to it, are placed good stores of food. In one such 

 nest were found many bodies of two species of lemming, and sev- 

 eral stoats ; and the abundance of bones belonging to hares, fish- 

 es, and ducks, showed that the wants of the young Foxes had 

 been amply supplied. 



This Fox is a very intelligent animal, though the accounts of 

 the earlier Arctic voyagers would lead the reader to imagine that 

 it was peculiarly stupid. It could be caught without the least 

 difficulty ; any rough contrivance answered for a trap, and any 

 number of Foxes might be taken in it. The hunter might make 

 a trap and bait it while the animal looked on, and as soon as he 

 retired, the Fox would walk into the snare. Fifteen have thus 

 been taken in four hours in a single trap. 



Other voyagers tell very different tales of the same animal. 

 Their note-books abound in anecdotes of its exceeding craft, and 

 the difficulty of catching it; and they tell us how the Arctic 

 Foxes learned to remove the baits without falling into the traps, 

 or being shot by the spring-guns. The reason is evident. Those 

 who commemorate its stupidity are the earlier voyagers — those 

 who describe its craft are the later travelers. Before the advent 



