226 
OUR FOX. 
morning. He was an astute-visaged little scamp ; and 
although the chains of captivity, made of spun-yarn 
and leather, set hardly upon him, he could spare 
abundant leisure for bear bones and snow. He would 
drink no water. His cry resembled the inter-parox- 
ysmal yell of a very small boy undergoing spanking. 
The note came with an impulsive vehemence, that 
expressed not only fear and pain, but a very tolerable 
spice of anger and ill-temper." 
He was soon reconciled, however. The very next 
day he was tame enough to feed from the hand, and 
had lost all that startled wildness of look which is sup- 
posed to characterize his tribe. He was evidently un- 
used to man, and without the educated instinct of 
flight. Twice, when suffered to escape from the ves- * 
sel, he was caught in our traps the same night. In- 
deed, the white foxes of this region — we caught more 
than thirty of them — seemed to look at us with more 
curiosity than fear. They would come directly to the 
ship's side ; and, though startled at first when we fired 
at them, soon came back. They even suffered us to 
approach them almost within reach of the hand, ran 
around us, as we gave the halloo, in a narrow circle, 
but stopped as soon as we were still, and stared us in- 
quisitively in the face. One little fellow, when we let 
him loose on the ice after keeping him prisoner for a 
day or two, scampered back again incontinently to his 
cubby-hole on the deck. There may be matter of re- 
flection for the naturalist in this. Has this animal 
no natural enemy but famine and cold ? The foxes 
ceased to visit us soon after this, owing probably to 
the uncertain ice between us and the shore : they are 
shrewd ice-masters. 
