188 
FOX. 
times overlay their young, the foxes etery morning 
examined the whole herd of them, one by one, as 
if conscious of this circumstance ; and immediately 
dragged away the dead cubs from their dams. 
“ As they would not suffer us to be at rest either 
by night or day, we became so exasperated against 
them that we killed them young and old, and 
harassed them by every means we could devise. 
When we awoke in the morning, there always lay 
two- or three that had been knocked on the head 
the preceding night ; and I can safely affirm, that, 
during my stay upon the island, I killed above 
two hundred of these animals with my own hands. 
On the third day after my arrival, I knocked down 
with a club, within the space of three hours, up- 
wards of seventy of them, and made a covering to 
my hut with their skins. They were so ravenous, 
that with one hand we could hold to them a piece 
of flesh, and with a stick or axe in the other could 
knock them down. 
u From all the circumstances that occurred during 
our stay, it was evident that these animals could 
never before have been acquainted with mankind ; 
and that the dread of man is not innate in brutes, 
but must be grounded on long experience. 
u Like the common foxes, they were the most 
sleek and full of hair in the months of October and 
November. In January and February the growth 
of this was too thick. In April and May they be- 
gan to shed their coat ; in the two following months 
they had only wool upon them, and appeared as if 
