46 
« Brack, 
£ Cross. 
EUROPEAN, BLACK, anp CROSS FOX. 
The fkins are a great article of commerce: abundance are im- 
ported annually from Hud/on’s Bay and Newfoundland. The natives of 
Hudfon’s Bay eat the flefh, rank as is it is. 
This fpecies abounds in Kamt/chatka, and is the fineft red fur of any 
known: grows fcarce within the Arétic circle of the Afatic regions, 
and is found there often white. 
HIS variety is found very often entirely black, with a white tip to 
the tail; and is far inferior in value and beauty to thofe of Kamt/- 
chatka and Sibiria, where a fingle fkin fells fer four hundred rubles. 
The beft in North America are found on the Labrador fide of Hud- 
Jon's Bay. They are alfo very common on the iflands oppofite to 
Kamtfchatka. The American black foxes, which I have examined, are 
frequently of a mixed color: from the hind part of the head to the 
middle of the back is a broad black line: the tail, legs, and belly, 
black: the hairs on the face, fides, and lower part of the back, cine- 
reous ; their upper ends ; biack the tip white. 
OX. With a bed of black running along the top of the back, 
croffed by another paffing down each fhoulder; from whence it 
tookthe name. The belly is black: the color of the reft of the body 
varies in different fkins ; but in all is a mixture of black, cinereous, 
and yellow: the fur in all very foft: and the tail very bufhy and full 
of hair; for nature, in the rigorous climate of the North, is ever 
careful to guard the extremities againft the injury of cold. 
This is likewife a very valuable variety. It is remarked, that the 
more defireable the fur is, the more cunning and difficult to be taken 
is the fox which owns it*. The Cofacks quartered in Kamt/chatka 
have attempted for two winters to catch a fingle black fox. The 
Crofs-fox, vulpes crucigera of Gefner, and Kors-raef of the Swedes +, is 
found in all the Polar countries. 
® Hift, Kamifchatka, 95. + Gefner Quad. 967. Faun. Suec, N° 4. tn 
