FOX. 
429 
singular, we always found the trap sprung. My companion 
insisted that the animal dug beneath it, and putting his paw 
beneath the jaw, pushed down the pan with safety to himself; 
but though the appearance seemed to confirm it, I could hardly 
credit his explanation. This year, in another locality of the 
same region, an old and experienced trapper assured me of its 
correctness, and said in confirmation that he had several times 
caught them, after tliey had made two or three successful 
a (tempts to spring the trap, by the simple expedient of setting it 
upside down, when of course the act of undermining and touch- 
ing the pan would bring the paw within the grasp of the jaws. 
In connection with traps, my friend Dr. Eae has 
communicated to me a highly remarkable instance of the 
display of reason on the part of the Arctic foxes. I have 
previously published the facts in my lecture before the 
British Association in 1879, and therefore shall here quote 
them from it : — 
Desiring to obtain some Arctic foxes, Dr. Eae set various 
kinds of traps } but as the foxes knew these traps from previous 
experience, he was unsuccessful. Accordingly he set a kind of 
trap with which the foxes in that part of the country were not 
acquainted. This consisted of a loaded gun set upon a stand 
pointing at the bait. A string connected the trigger of the gun 
with the bait, so that when the fox seized the bait he discharged 
the gun, and thus committed suicide. In this arrangement the 
gun was separated from the bait by a distance of about 30 yards, 
and the string which connected the trigger with the bait was 
concealed throughout nearly its whole distance in the snow. 
The gun- trap thus set was successful in killing one fox, but 
never in killing a second ; for the foxes afterwards adopted 
either of two devices whereby to secure the bait without injur- 
ing themselves. One of these devices was to bite through the 
string at its exposed part near the trigger, and the other device 
was to burrow up to the bait through the snow at right angles 
to the line of fire, so that, although in this way they discharged 
the gun, they escaped with perhaps only a pellet or two in the 
nose. Xow both of these devices exhibited a wonderful degree 
of what I think must fairly be called power of reasoning. I 
have carefully interrogated Dr, Eae on all the circumstances of 
the case, and he tells me that in that part of the world traps 
are never set with strings ; so that there can have been no 
special association in the foxes 5 minds between strings and 
traps. Moreover, after the death of fox No, 1, the track o a 
