THE BLUE FOX 211 



When we lay on the sea otters which had just been killed in 

 order to keep them from being stolen by them [the foxes], they 

 ate away from under us the meat and the entrails from the car- 

 cass. We therefore always slept with clubs in hand so that when 

 they waked us we could drive them away or knock them down. 



Where we sat down by the wayside they waited for us and 

 played innumerable tricks in our sight, became constantly more 

 impudent, and when we sat still came so near that they began 

 to gnaw the straps on our new-fashioned, self-made shoes, and 

 even the shoes themselves. If we lay down as if sleeping they 

 sniffed at our nostrils to see whether we were dead or alive; if 

 one held one's breath they even nipped our noses and were about 

 to bite. When we first arrived they bit off the noses, fingers, and 

 toes of our dead while their graves were being dug; they also 

 attacked the weak and ill to such extent that one could hardly 

 hold them off. One night when a sailor on his knees wanted to 

 urinate out of the door of the hut, a fox snapped at the exposed 

 part and, in spite of his cries, did not soon want to let go. No 

 one could relieve himself without a stick in his hand, and they 

 immediately ate up the excrement as eagerly as pigs or hungry 

 dogs. Every morning these impudent animals were seen patrol- 

 ling among the sea lions and fur seals that were lying on the 

 beach and snifiing at those who were asleep to see whether there 

 were not some dead among them. If they found one they immedi- 

 ately went at devouring it, and they could all be seen helping to 

 drag it away. Because especially the sea lions often smothered 

 their young while sleeping at night they [the foxes], as if aware 

 of the circumstance, examined [the animals in] the herds one 

 by one every morning and dragged away the dead cubs like 

 scavengers. 



Inasmuch as they left us no rest by day or night we indeed 

 became so embittered against them that we killed young and 

 old, did them all possible harm, and, wherever we could, tortured 

 them most cruelly. W^henever we awoke from sleep in the 

 morning two or three that had been killed lay at our feet, and I 

 personally may well have been responsible during my sojourn on 



