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November and continues until December. The older the fox 

 is, the more valuable the fur.The young ones,which have shed 

 their fur are called half-grown arctic foxes (nedopesok) and 

 have short uneven hairs and are also not equally coloured. 

 The best and most homogeneous in colour and dark furs are 

 from Copper Isl. The colour of the hair varies from light gray 

 to entire black, but the latter are a great scarcity. In the 

 market the furs besides being valued by their size, are 

 valued by the length and colour of hairs, and also the 

 quality of the short wool, which is of different kinds. In 

 spring with the arrival of the flights of sea-birds-the 

 predominating food of foxes, on both Islands birds and 

 eggs appear, though the fox dees not refuse anything 

 washed in by the sea. With the departure of sea-birds 

 a hard time commences for the fox. On Behring Isl. it 

 can catch fish in the rivers and hunt partridges yet, on 

 Copper Isl. it is more difficult to obtani food. Here it 

 often finds the leavings of the seals carcasses and frequently 

 visits the shore to search for birds — sometimes a soundly 

 sleeping cormorant (Phalacocorax) becomes its victim— but 

 this is rare, as the cormorant prefers to sleep in places 

 rather inaccesible to the fox, and besides which at that 

 time the rocks are frozen over. But on the shore are 

 always plent}^ of things washed in by the sea and also 

 sea-urchins, which serve as splendid food, though every 

 year foxes are found having died of starvation. Hunger 

 compels the fox to steal provisions, which are badly hid- 

 den by the natives. In general the number of foxes on 

 Copper Isl. have diminished with the decrease of the 

 pelagic sealing now no seal carcases remain, only useless 

 rejections are there, which are allowed to decay. In 

 summer during the time of luxury the fox only eats the 

 breast of the birds, throwing away the rest. 



The fox actually eats everything it finds thrown out 

 on to the beach. In its hole, stores of bones are found, 

 which shows, that the fox brings all it captures or finds 

 to his hole and thanks to this, skeletons are preserved 



