THE ARCTIC FOX.[131]
This is an extremely well-marked species of Fox, found in the southern and central parts of Greenland, and extending high up Smith’s Sound. It is sometimes seen during the Seal-hunting season hundreds of miles from land, on the frozen sea, where it has wandered to feast on the dead Seals.
It is usually stated that the colour of the skin of this animal varies with the season—that in summer it is of a blue-grey colour, while in winter it is perfectly white; these colours, of course, serving as a protection to the animal: the blue harmonises well with the rocky shore and the thick, dark ice, while the winter coat is perfectly indistinguishable on the snow, with which the ground is then thickly strewn. But according to a writer of high authority, Dr. Robert Brown, this is all a mistake. The white and blue colours are distinctive of separate varieties of the Arctic Fox, and not of the same animal at different seasons; the colour in each case being wholly independent of the time of year. The length, from snout to root of tail, is about two feet, that of the tail itself about a foot.
An interesting account of the manners and customs of this pretty little animal is given by Sir J. Richardson, who says:—
“The Arctic Fox is an extremely cleanly animal, being very careful not to dirt those places in which he eats or sleeps. No unpleasant smell is to be perceived, even in a male, which is a remarkable circumstance. To come unawares on one of these creatures is, in my opinion, impossible; for even when in an apparently sound sleep, they open their eyes at the slightest 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 supposed, 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 constrained to eat his food without its having been rendered luscious by previous 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 scattered 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 afford 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 valued his fingers would endeavour to take hold of the end attached to the staple.”
The Eskimo take the Arctic Foxes in traps, which are described by Captain Parry as being “extremely simple and ingenious. They consist of a small circular arched hut, built of stones, having a square aperture at the top, but quite close and secure in every other part. This aperture is closed by some blades of whalebone, which, though in reality only fixed to the stones at one end, appear to form a secure footing, especially when the deception is assisted by a little snow laid on them. The bait is so placed that the animal must come upon this platform to get at it, when the latter, unable to bear the weight, bends downwards, and after precipitating the Fox into the trap, which is made too deep to allow of his escape, returns by its elasticity to its former position, so that several may then be caught successively.” They are also taken in the wolf-traps of ice; and all the rocky islands lying off the mouth of the Coppermine River are studded with square traps, built of stone, by the Eskimo, wherein the Fox is killed by a flat stone falling upon him when he pulls at the bait.
The skins of both the white and the blue Fox are important articles of commerce, but the blue variety, being much rarer than the white, is far more valuable, the price for it being six or seven times as much as that of the white.