Penfyhania, Philadelphia, 283 



[ The red Foxes are very fcarce here : they 

 [are entirely the fame with the European 

 I fort. Mr. Bartrajn, and feveral others 

 aflured me, that according to the unani- 

 mous teftimony of the Indians, this kind of 

 foxes never was in the country, before the 

 Europeans fettled in it. But of the m?n- 

 ner of their coming over I have two dif- 

 ferent accounts : Mr. Bartram and feveral 

 other people were told by the Indians, that 

 thefe foxes came into America foon after 

 the arrival of the Europeans, after an extra- 

 ordinary cold winter, when all the fea to 

 the northward was frozen : from hence 

 they would infer, that they could perhaps 

 get over to America upon the ice from 

 Greenland or the northern parts of Europe 

 and Afia. But Mr. Evans, and fome others 

 allured me that the following account was 

 ftill known by the people. A gentleman 

 of fortune in New England, who had a 

 great inclination for hunting, brought over 

 a great number of foxes from Europe, and 

 let them loofe in his territories, that he 

 might be able to indulge his paffion for 

 hunting.* This is faid to have happened 



almofl 



•Neither of thefe accounts appear to be fatlsfaftory; 

 and therefore I am inclined to believe that thefe red foxes 

 originally came over from Afia, (moft probably from Kam- 



icbatia 



