THE ARCTIC POX« I5f 



and smelt at our noses, to iind whether we were 

 dead or alive. On our first arrival, they bit off the 

 noses, fingers, and toes of our dead, while we were 

 preparing tlie grave ; and thronged in such a man- 

 ner about the infirm and sick, that it was with dif- 

 ficulty we could keep them off. 



" Every morning w6 saw these audacious animals, 

 patrolling about among the Sea-lions and Sea-bears* 

 lying on the strand; smelUng at such as were asleep, 

 to discover whether some one of them miglit not be 

 dead : if that happened to be <-he case, they pro- 

 ceeded to dissect him immediately, and soon after- 

 Wards all were at work in dragging the parts away. 

 Because the Sea-lions sometimes in their sleep over- 

 lay their young, the Foxes every morning examined 

 the whole herd of them, one by one, as if consci- 

 ous of this circumstance ; and immediately dragged 

 away the dead cubs from their dams. 



" As they would not suffer us to be at rest either 

 by night or day, we became so exasperated against 

 them that we killed them, young and old, and harass- 

 ed them by every means we could devise. When we 

 awoke in the morning, there always lay two or three 

 that had been knocked on the head the preceding 

 night ; and I can safely affirm, that, during my stay 

 upon the island, I killed above two hundred of these 

 animals with my own hands. On the third day after 

 my arrival, I knocked down witli a club, within the 

 space of three hours, upwards of seventy of them^ 

 and made a GO\xring to my hut with their skins. 



* Leoniut' Seals, and Volas Beai-?. 



Vol. L S 



