THE ARCTIC FOX. 255 



Steller has given us an ample and entertaining de- 

 scription of their manners *. 



" During my unfortunate abode (says he) on 

 Bering's Island, I had but too many opportunities 

 of studying the nature of these animals ; which far 

 exceed the common Fox in impudence, cunning, 

 and roguery. 'The narrative of the innumerable 

 tricks they played us, might vie with Albertus 

 Julius's history of the Apes on the island of Sax- 

 cnburg. 



^' They forced themselves into our habitations by 

 nipht as^well as by day, stealing all that they could 

 carry otF; even things that were of no use to them, 

 as knives, sticks, and clothes. They were so ex- 

 tremely ingenious, as to roll down our casks of pro- 

 visions, several foods -^ in weight ; and then steal 

 the meat out with such skill, that, at first, wc 

 could not bring ourselves to ascribe the theft to 

 them. While employed in stripping an animal of 

 its skin, it has often liappcned that v/e could not 

 avoid stabbing two or three Foxes, from their rapa- 

 city in tearing the flesh out of our hands. If we 

 buried it ever so carefully, and even added stones 

 to the weight of earth that was upon it ; they not 

 only found it out, but with tlieir shoulders pushed 

 away the stones, by lying under them, and in this 

 manner helping one anotiier. If, in order to secure it. 



* This description would seem to border somcwlmt on romance ; 

 'but we know not how to contradict the statement of facts to which a 

 respectable writer informs us he was an evc-witness. 



t The pood is equal to -40 Paissian pwniid=, each of whicli is somo 

 ■wha,t less than the English pound. 



