27 4 
ARCTIC F0X. 
tricks they played us, might vie with Albertus 
Julius* history of the apes on the island of Sax- 
enburg. 
te They forced themselves into our habitations 
by night as well as by day, stealing all that they 
could carry off ; even things that were of no use 
to them, as knives, sticks, and clothes. They 
were so extrefnely ingenious, as to roll down our 
casks of provisions, several poods (quarters) in 
weight ; and then steal the meat out with such 
skill, that, at first, we could not bring ourselves 
to ascribe the theft to them. While employed in 
stripping an animal of its skin, it has often hap- 
pened that we could not avoid stabbing two or 
three foxes, from their rapacity in tearing the flesh 
out of our hands. If we buried it ever so care- 
fully, and even added stones to the weight of 
earth that was upon it ; they not only found it out, 
but with their shoulders pushed away the stones 
by lying under them, and in this manner helping 
one another. If, in order to secure it, we put 
any animal on the top of a high post in the air ; 
they either dug up the earth at the bottom, and 
thus tumbled the whole down, or one of them 
climbed up, and with incredible artifice and dex- 
terity threw down what was upon it. 
r<r They watched all our motions, and accom- 
panied us in whatever we were about to do. If 
the sea threw up an animal of any kind, they de- 
voured it before we could arrive to rescue it from 
them ; and if they could not .consume the whole 
of it at once, they trailed it in portions to the 
mountains, where they buried it under stones be- 
fore our eyes, running to and fro so long as any 
thing remained to be conveyed away. While 
this was doing, others stood on guard and watch- 
ed us. If they saw any one coming at a distance, 
the whole troop would combine at once, and begin 
