2% November 1748. 



almoft at the very beginning of New Engr 

 land's being peopled with European inha-; 

 bitants. Thefe foxes were believed to have" 

 fo multiplied, that all the red foxes in the 

 country were their offspring. At prefent 

 they are reckoned among the noxious crea- 

 tures in thefe parts; for they are not content- 

 ed, as the grey foxes with killing fowl 3 but 

 they likewife devour the lambs. In Pen- 

 fyhania therefore there is a reward of two 

 Shillings for killing an old fox, and of one 

 fhilling for killing a young one. And in 

 all the other provinces there are likewife 

 rewards offer'd for killing them. Their 

 fkin is in great requeft, and is fold as dear 

 as that of the grey foxes, that is two fhil- 



lings 



tchatka where this fpecies is common, fee Miller's Account 

 cfthe Navigations of the RuJJians, &c.) though in remote 

 times, and thus fpread over North America, It is perhaps 

 true that the Indians never took notice of them till the 

 Europeans were fettled among them ; this, however, was 

 becaufe they never had occafion to ufe their fkins : but when 

 there was a demand for thefe they began to hunt them, and, 

 as they had not been much accuftomed to them before, 

 they efteemed them as a novelty. What gives additional com- 

 firraation to this is, that when the RuJJians under Commo- 

 dore Bering landed on the weftern coaft o^ America, they faw 

 five red foxes which were quite tame, and feemed not to be 

 in the leaft afraid of men : now this might very well have 

 been the cafe if we fuppofe them to have been for many 

 generations in a place where no body difturbed them ; but 

 we cannot account for it, if we imagine that they had been 

 ufed to a country where there were many inhabitants, or 

 whg-e they had been much hunted. F. 



