L ntelligence of Foxes. 185 
the place. However this may be, I was delighted that the 
beautiful and clever creature had not only saved his life by 
his intelligence, but had obtained a small Christmas breakfast 
into the bargain; and I could not resist the temptation to lay 
out some food for him, in order that he might enjoy his 
Christmas dinner without fear of gun or trap.” 
Other Arctic travellers have found the foxes dig under steel 
traps placed on the snow, and, springing them from beneath, 
eat the bait in safety. The Eskimo trap, however, is more 
successful. This consists of a heavy slab of ice, propped up 
by a small upright of ice whose lower end rests on the meat. 
in pulling which away, the fox brings down the slab. These 
materials, being familiar to the animal, probably disarm his 
suspicion. Moreover, he cannot possibly get at the bait 
without bringing down the slab, and hunger, no doubt, may 
overcome his caution. The Eskimo have two barbarous, but 
very ingenious, methods of killing wolves, described by Lieu- 
tenant Schwatka. They set in the snow a couple of sharp 
knife blades, covered with blood, which the wolves lick, 
cutting their tongues. At first they do not feel the wounds, 
but go on licking, stimulated by the taste of their own warm 
blood, until their tongues become so scarified that they bleed 
to death. Many are killed by bending a strip of whalebone, 
and inclosing it in a piece of frozen meat. The meat thaws 
in the wolf’s stomach, when the whalebone straightens and 
pierces the intestines, causing certain death. 
The sight of unfamiliar materials has a great effect on the 
mind of animals—thus, a farmer protected his lambs from 
foxes by tying ‘a piece of red or black braid round their 
necks. This, he asserts, entirely. stopped the ravages of the 
foxes among his lambs, which were reared in a field adjoin- 
ing a large covert. Unfamiliar scents will, it seems, also 
deter foxes from attacking lambs; for a Dorsetshire farmer 
daubed their necks with a mixture of assafcetida and tar, and 
subsequently lost none of his lambs. 
I had often heard it stated that foxes rid themselves of 
