though they would bite it off. On our first arrival, they bit off the noses, the fingers, and the toes of our dead, while we were preparing the grave, and thronged in such a manner about the infirm and sick, that it was with difficulty we could keep them off.

*

Every morning we saw these audacious animals patrolling about among the Sea-lions and Seabears lying on the strand, smelling at such as were asleep, to discover whether some one of them might not be dead; if that happened to be the case they proceeded to dissect him immediately, and soon afterwards all were at work in dragging the parts away: because the Sea-lions sometimes in their sleep overlay their young, they every morning examined, as if conscious of this circumstance, the whole herd of them, one by one, 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 at them, that we killed them, young and old, and plagued 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 in the 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, upwards of

*Leonine Seals, and Polar Bears.

seventy of them, and made a covering to my hut of 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 on the head.

"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.

"In October and November they, like the common Foxes, were the most sleek and full of hair. In January and February the growth of this was too thick; in April and May they began to shed their coat; in the two following months they had only wool upon them, and appeared as if they went in waistcoats.

"In June they dropt their cubs, nine or ten at a brood, in holes and clefts of the rocks. They are so fond of their young, that, to scare us away from them, they barked and yelled like Dogs, by which they betrayed their covert; but no sooner do they perceive that their retreat is discovered than, unless they be prevented, they drag away the young in their mouths, and endeavour to conceal them in some more secret place. On killing the young the dam will follow the slayer, with dreadful howlings, both day and night, for a hundred or more versts, and will not even then cease till she has done her

*The Russian verst contains about 1166 English yards and about a half.

enemy some material injury, or is herself killed by him.

"In storms, and heavy falls of snow, they bury themselves in the snow, where they lie as long as it lasts. They swim across the rivers with great agility. Besides what the sea casts up, or what is destroyed by other beasts, they seize the Sea-fowl, by night, on the cliffs, where they have settled to sleep; but they, on the contrary, are themselves frequently victims to the birds of prey.

"These animals, which are now in such inexpreffible numbers on the island, were probably conveyed thither (since there is no other land animal upon it,) from the continent on the drift-ice; and, being afterwards nourished by the great quantity of animal substances thrown ashore by the sea, they became thus enormously multiplied."

We are informed by Mr. Crantz, that the Arctic Foxes exert an extraordinary degree of cunning in their mode of obtaining Fish for prey. They go into the water, and make a splash with their feet, in order to excite their curiosity, and when they come up, immediately seize them. He says that, in imitation of these animals, the Greenland women have adopted the same successful method.*

Charlevoix, apparently alluding to this species, says that they exert an almost incredible degree of cunning in entrapping the different kinds of Waterfowl. They advance a little way into the water, and afterwards retire, playing a thousand antic

tricks on the banks. The Fowl approach, and, when they come near, the animal ceases that he may not alarm them, moving only his tail about, and that very gently: they are said to be so foolish as to come up and peck at it, when he immediately springs round upon them, and seldom misses his aim.*

In Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla, Mr. Pennant tells us, these Foxes live also on the lesser quadrupeds: in Greenland, from necessity, on berries, shell-fish, or whatever the sea throws up: but, in the north of Asia, and in Lapland, their principal food is the Lemming,t the multitudes of which are sometimes so immense as to cover the whole face of the country. The Foxes follow them in their emigrations from place to place; and, as the return of the Lemming is very uncertain, and not fre quently till after long intervals of time, they are sometimes absent for three or four years in pursuit of this their favourite prey."

Mr. Pennant also tells us, that they are tame and inoffensive animals; and so simple that there have been instances of their standing by while the trap was baiting, and immediately afterwards putting their heads into it.‡

They are killed for the sake of their skins, the fur of which is light and warm, but not durable. They have at times appeared in such vast numbers about Hudson's Bay, that four hundred have been

* Charlevoix Travels, i. 207.

Penn. Arct. Zool. i. 43; 44.

+ Mus Lemmus of Linnæus.

taken in different ways between the months of December and March.

The Greenlanders sometimes eat the flesh, which they prefer to that of the Hare: they also make buttons of the skins; and, splitting the tendons, make use of them instead of thread.

THE CAT TRIBE.

THIS tribe of animals is ferocious, and tolerably swift of foot. They hunt for their prey chiefly in the night, and seize it by surprize, lying in wait till it comes within reach, and then springing suddenly forwards upon it at one leap. While their prey is in sight they frequently move their tail from side to side, keeping at the same time their eyes steadily fixed on the object. They never adopt vegetable food, except from necessity. Most of them are very agile in climbing trees, and have the remarkable property of alighting on their feet when accidently thrown, or falling, from a height, by which the danger usually attendant on such falls is often prevented. The females, producing a considerable number of young at a birth, have eight teats, four of which are situated on the breast, and the other four on the belly.*

In this genus the fore-teeth are six, the intermediate ones equal: the grinders are three on each

Linn. Gmel. i. 76. Kerr. i. 145.