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.”
Hearne says, that, when taken young, the Arctic fox may be domesticated in some
degree, but he never saw one that was fond of being caressed; and they are always
impatient of confinement. Notwithstanding the degree of intelligence which the
anecdotes related by Captain Lyon shew them to possess, they are unlike the red
fox, in being extremely unsuspicious ; and instances are related of their standing
by, while the hunter is preparing the .trap, and running headlong into it the
moment he retires a few paces. Captain Lyon received fifteen from a single trap
in four hours. The voice of the Arctic fox is a kind of yelp, and when a man
approaches their breeding places, they put their heads out of their burrows, and
bark at him, allowing him to come so near that they may be easily shot. They
appear to have the power of decoying other animals within their reach, by imitating
their voices. “ While tenting, we observed a fox prowling on a hill side, and
heard him for several hours afterwards in different places, imitating the cry of a
brent goose They feed on eggs, young birds, blubber, and carrion of any kind ;
but their principal food seems to be lemmings of different species.
The Arctic fox is an inhabitant of the most northern lands hitherto discovered,
and in North America their southern limit appears to be about latitude 50°. They
are numerous on the shores of Hudson’s Bay, north of Churchill, and exist also in
Behring’s Straits; bnt the brown variety, mentioned in the following pages, is the
more common one in the latter quarter. They breed on the sea coast, and chiefly
within the Arctic circle, forming burrows iu sandy spots,—not solitary, like the red
fox, but in little villages, twenty or thirty burrows being constructed adjoining to each
other,. We saw one of these villages on Point Turnagain, in latitude 6 8 y . Towards
the middle of winter they retire to the southward, evidently in search of food, keeping
as much as possible on the coast, and going much further to the southward in
districts where the coast-line is in the direction of their march. Captain Parry relates
that the Arctic foxes, which were previously numerous, began to retire from
Melville Peninsula in November, and that by January few remained. Towards
the centre of the Continent, in latitude 65°, they are seen only in the winter, and
then not in numbers; they are very scarce in latitude 61°, and at Carlton House,
in latitude 53°, only two were seen in forty years. On the coast of Hudson’s Bay,
however, according to Hearne, they arrive at Churchill, in latitude 59°, about the
middle of October, and afterwards receive reinforcements from the northward, until
Lyon’s Private Journal, p. 424.