THE ASSE, OR CAAMA. 



337 



is true that, when a human being approaches their burrows, the inmates retire into 

 their homes ; but as they continually protrude their heads and yelp at their foe, the 

 precaution is to very little purpose. 



In size, the Arctic Fox is not the equal of the English species, weighing only eight 

 pounds on an average, and its total length being about three feet. The eye is of a 

 hazel tint, and very bright and intelligent. It lives in burrows, which it excavates in 

 the earth during the summer months, and prefers to construct its simple dwellings in 

 small groups of twenty or thirty. 



THE LITTLE animal which is known by the name of the ASSE or the CAAMA, is an in- 

 habitant of Southern Africa, and is in great request for the sake of the skin, which 

 furnishes a very valuable fur. 



It is a terrible enemy to ostriches and other birds which lay their eggs in the ground, 

 and is in consequence detested by the birds whose nes^ are devastated. The ingenuity 

 of the Caama in procuring the contents of an ostrich's egg is rather remarkable. The 



ARTIC FOX.-Vulpes Lagopus. 



shell of the egg is extremely thick and strong ; and as the Caama is but a small ani- 

 mal, its teeth are unable to make any impression on so large, smooth, hard, and round- 

 ed an object. In order, therefore, to obviate this difficulty, the cunning animal rolls 

 the egg along by means of its fore-paws, and pushes it so violently against any hard 

 substance that may lie conveniently in its path, or against another egg, that the shell 

 is broken and the contents attainable. 



The fur of this animal is highly esteemed by the natives for the purpose of making 

 " karosses," or mantles. As the Asse is one of the smallest of the Foxes, a great 

 number of skins are needed to form a single mantle, and the manufactured article is 

 therefore held in high value by its possessor. Indeed, so valuable is its fur, that it 

 tempts many of the Bechuana tribes to make its chase the business of their lives, and 

 to expend their whole energies in capturing the animal from whose body the much- 

 prized fur is taken. 



The continual persecution to which the Caama is subjected, has almost extermi- 

 nated it in the immediate vicinity of Cape Town, where it was formerly seen in tolerable 

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