ARCTIC FOX. 
93 
noise which is made near them, although they pay no attention to sounds 
when at a short distance. The general time of rest is during the daylight, 
in which they appear listless and inactive ; but the night no sooner sets in 
than all their faculties are awakened ; they commence their gambols, and 
continue in unceasing and rapid motion until the morning. While hunting 
for food, they are mute, but when in captivity or irritated, they utter a 
short growl like that of a young puppy. It is a singular fact, that their 
bark is so undulated as to give an idea that the animal is at a distance, 
although at the very moment he lies at your feet. 
“ Although the rage of a newly caught Fox is quite ungovernable, yet it 
very rarely happened that on two being put together they quarrelled. A 
confinement of a few hours often sufficed to quiet these creatures ; and 
some instances occurred of their being perfectly tame, although timid, from 
the first moment of their captivity. On the other hand, there were some 
which, after months of coaxing, never became more tractable. These we 
suppose were old ones. 
“ Their first impulse on receiving food is to hide it as soon as possible, 
even though suffering from hunger and having no fellow-prisoners of whose 
honesty they are doubtful. In this case snow is of great assistance, as 
being easily piled over their stores, and then forcibly pressed down by the 
nose. I frequently observed my Dog-Fox, when no snow was attainable, 
gather his chain into his mouth, and in that manner carefully coil it so as 
to hide the meat. On moving away, satisfied with his operations, he of 
course had drawn it after him again, and sometimes with great patience 
repeated his labours five or six times, until in a passion he has been con- 
strained to eat his food without its having been rendered luscious by pre- 
vious concealment. Snow is the substitute for water to these creatures, 
and on a large lump being given to them they break it in pieces with their 
feet and roll on it with great delight. When the snow was slightly scat- 
tered on the decks, they did not lick it up as dogs are accustomed to do, 
but by repeatedly pressing with their nose collected small lumps at its 
extremity, and then drew it into the mouth with the assistance of the 
tongue.” 
In another passage, Captain Lyon, alluding to the above-mentioned 
Dog-Fox, says : “He was small and not perfectly white ; but his tameness 
was so remarkable that I could not bear to kill him, but confined him on 
deck in a small hutch, with a scope of chain. The little animal astonished 
us very much by his extraordinary sagacity, for during the first day, finding 
himself much tormented by being drawn out repeatedly by his chain, 
he at length, whenever he retreated to his hut, took this carefully up 
in his mouth, and drew it so completely after him that no one who 
