262 . 
A VOYAGE TO SP1TZBERGEN. 
bergen. Turning to look seaward, a splendid scene 
repaid us somewhat for our regret at the careless 
waste of life. Our eyes wandered at will over the 
vast sea, where only a few blocks of ice lay scattered 
on its surface ; beyond these the ice-fields were spread 
so far as to seem limitless, while the peculiar Arctic 
sky lent a charm to the whole it is impossible to de¬ 
scribe. We sat and watched the many curious features 
presented by the unusual prospect, and to us it realized 
an entirely new kind of enjoyment, which we can only 
compare to a feeling of profound satisfaction and relief. 
We returned from our excursion to the shore. We 
shot a fox. Start not, my hunting friends! to us 
the fox is as sacred as to yourselves. Our fox was not 
russet red; he was a decidedly blue fox, and blue foxes 
may be shot with perfect propriety. Our blue fox was 
to us a perfect treasure; white foxes, brown foxes, and 
even black foxes abound in Spitzbergen; but a little 
blue fellow was worth bagging, and we carried him 
gaily to the boat. As we were stepping on board, a 
blackish-coloured fox, closely resembling the surround¬ 
ing objects seen in the dusk of evening, crept slyly after 
us. We could not make him out, however, and we 
gave up the pursuit. The sailors had seen two black 
foxes in our absence, which appeared to them to be as 
large as good-sized retriever dogs. For three days we 
