were worthless; in such case he lived either to
drag about a quantity of information in a copper collar for the rest of
his days, or else to die a slow death, as being intended for Lord
Derby's menagerie. The departure of 'a postman' was a scene of no small
merriment; all hands, from the captain to the cook, were out to chase
the fox, who, half frightened out of its wits, seemed to doubt which way
to run, whilst loud shouts and roars of laughter, breaking the cold,
frosty air, were heard from ship to ship, as the foxhunters, swelled in
numbers from all sides, and those that could not run mounted some
neighbouring hummock of ice and gave a loud halloo, which said far more
for robust health than for tuneful melody."

The Arctic fox as a captive has often amused our Arctic voyagers, and
accounts of it are to be met with in most of their narratives. Captain
Lyon made a pet of one he captured, and confined it on deck in a small
kennel with a piece of chain. The little creature astonished the party
very much by his extraordinary sagacity, for, on the very first day,
having been repeatedly drawn out by his chain, he at length drew his
chain in after him whenever he retreated to his hut, and took it in with
his mouth so completely, that no one who valued his fingers would
venture afterwards to take hold of the end attached to the staple.

Sir J. C. Ross observed in Boothia Felix a good deal of difference in
the disposition of specimens, some being easily tamed, whilst others
would remain savage and untractable even with the kindest treatment. He
found the females much more vicious than the males. A dog-fox which his
party captured lived several months with them, and became so tame in a
short time that he regularly attended the dinner-table like a dog, and
was always allowed to go at large about the cabin. When newly caught
their rage is quite ungovernable, and yet when two are put together they
very seldom quarrel. They soon get reconciled to confinement. Captain
Lyon[120] notices that their first impulse on getting food is to hide it
as soon as possible, and this, he observed, they did, even when hungry
and by themselves; when there was snow on the ground they piled it over
their stores, and pressed it down forcibly with their nose. When no
snow was to be obtained, he noticed his pet fox gather the chain into
his mouth, and then carefully coil it so as to cover the meat. Having
gone through this process, and drawn away his cha