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. THE FENNEC.[132] This is a pretty little Fox-like animal, about ten inches long, not including the tail, which measures about five inches and a quarter. The fur is of a whitish hue, the cheeks large, and the snout sharp, just like those of a true Fox; but the ears distinguish it at once: they are quite erect, and nearly three inches and a half long, that is, considerably longer than the whole head.