ACCOUNT OF THE ICE-FOX.-REIN DEER.AND SEA BEAR. From Tooke's View of the Ruffian Empire. Of the Ice Fox. THE HE true native country of the rock or ice-fox are the islands of the Frozen Ocean and the Eaftern Ocean, where they are found in incredible numbers. The defcription which Steller gives of this curious and fly auimal is fo entertaining, that it may be read with pleasure even more than once.-] -During my unfortunate abode, fays he, on Behring's Ifland, I had opportunities more than enough for ftudying the nature of this animal, far excelling the common fox in impudence, cunning, and roguery. The narrative of the innumerable tricks they played us might easily vie with Albertus Julius's hiftory of the apes on the island of Saxenburg: .they forced themselves into our habitations by night as well as day, stealing all that they could carry off; even things that were of no ufe to them, as knives, sticks, our clothes, &c. They were fo inconceivably ingeni ous as to roll down cur cafks of provifions, feveral poods* in weight, and then fteal the meat out of them fo ably, that at first we could not bring ourfelves to afcribe the theft to them. As we were ftripping an animal of his fkin, it often happened that we could not avoid ftabbing two or three foxes, from their rapacity in tearing the flesh out of our hands. If we buried it ever fo carefully, and added ftones to the weight of earth that was upon it, they not only found it out, but fhoved away the ftones, as men would have done, with their fhoulders, and lying under them helped one another with all their might. If, thinking to fecure it, we put any on the top of a high poft in the air, they grubbed up the earth at the bottom, fo that the poft and all came tumb ling town, or one of them clambered up and threw down what was upon Ed. Mag. Oct. 1799. 249 it with incredible artifice and dexterity. They watched all our motions, and accompanied us in whatever we were about to do. If the fea threw up an animal of any kind, they devoured it, ere a man of us could come up, to our great disadvantage; and if they could not confume it all at once, they trailed it away in portions to the mountains, where they buried it under ftones before our eyes; running to and fro as long as any thing remained to be conveyed away. While this was doing, others ftood upon guard and watched us. If they faw any one coming at a diftance, the whole troop combined at once, and began digging all together in the fand, till they had fo fairly put a beaver or a fea-bear under the surface that not a trace of it was to to be feen. In the night-time, when we flept in the field, they came and pulled off our night caps, and ftole our gloves from under our heads, with the beaver coverings and the fkins that we lay upon. In confequence of this we always flept with clubs in our hands, that, if they should wake us, we might drive them away. When we made a halt to reft by the way, they gathered around us, and played a thoufand tricks in our view; and when we fat ftill, they approached us fo near that they gnawthe thongs of our fhoes. If we lay down, as if intending to fleep, they came and fmelled at our nofes, to try whether we were dead or living; if we held our breath, they gave fuch a tug to the nofe, as if they would bite it off. On our firft arrival, they bit off the noses, the fingers, and toes of our dead, while we were preparing the grave, and thronged in fuch a manner about the infirm and the fick, that it was with difficulty we could keep them off. Every mornI i *A pood is 40 pounds. ing i ng we faw thofe audacious animals patrolling about among the fea lions and fea-bears lying on the ftrand, fmelling at fuch as were asleep, to difcover whether fome of them might not be dead; if that happened to be the cafe, they proceeded to diffect him immediately, and prefently after all were at work in dragging the parts away; because the fea lions of a night in their fleep frequently overlay their young, they examine, as if conscious of this circumftance, every morning the whole herd of them, one by one, and immediately drag away the dead cubs from their dams. Seeing now that they would not fuffer us to be at reft night nor day, we were in fact fo exafperated at them that we killed them young and old, and plagued them by every means we could devife. When we awoke in the morning, there always lay two or three at our feet that had been knocked on the head in the night; and I can fafely affirm, that during my ftay upon the island, above two hundred of these animals were flain by myself alone. The third day after my arrival! knocked down, within the fpace of three hours, upwards of feventy of them with a club, and made a covering to my hut of their fkins. They are fo ravenous, that with one hand we could hold to them a piece of flesh, and grasp a ftick or an ax in the other, to knock them on the head. When these busy animals could not get hold on what they wanted, for example, the clothes we occafionally put off, they voided their excrements upon it, and then fcarcely one of the reft paffed by without doing the fame. From all circumftances, it was clear to us that they could never before have seen a human being, and that the dread of man is not innate in the brutes, but must be grounded on long experience. In October and November they, like the foxes, were the most fleek and full of hair. In January and February the growth of it is too thick; in April and May they begin to shed their coat; in June and July they had only the wool upon them, and looked as if they went in waiftcoats. In June they drop their cnbs, nine or ten at a brood, in holes and clefts of the rocks. They are fo fond of their young, that, to fcare us away from them, they barked and yelled like dogs, and thereby betrayed their covert. No fooner do they perceive that their retreat is difcovered, than, unlefs they be difturbed, they drag away the young in their mouths, and try to conceal them in a more fecret place. On killing the young, the dam follows the flayer, with grievous howlings, day and night, for a hundred and more verfts, and never ceases till fhe has played her enemy fome trick, or is killed by him herself. They ftink much more horridly than even the red-fox In ruttingtime, they run together day and night, biting each other, from jealoufy, as dogs. When they couple, they make juft fuch a fcreaming as cats do. In storms and heavy falls of fnow, they bury themselves in the fnow, and lie ftill as long as it lafts. They swim across rivers with great agility. Befides what the fea calls up or is deftroyed by beafts, they feize the feafowl by night on the cliffs where they have fettled to fleep: but they themfelves are frequently victims to the birds of prey. Thefe animals, which are now in fuch inexpreffible numbers on the ifland, probably were conveyed thither, fince there is no other land animal upon it, from the continent on the drift-ice; and afterwards nourished by the great quantity of animal fuftances thrown afhore by the fea, multiplied to fuch an extraordinary degree.* The * Steller's Befchreibung der Berinfinfel, in Pallas Neuen Nordifchen Beytrægen, tend. ii. p. 274-279. The Rein Deer le extremely numerous through the whole northern and eastern Siberia: lefs frequent about the Ural and in the European north. This exceedingly useful creature, which with many nations of the northern climes is a domeftic animal, must be treated of in that refpect in fome future fection; we fhall here confider him only as a beast of chace. In woody districts, where springes, firearms, and spring guns, are applicable they are the moft ufual means reforted to for taking or killing the reindeer: but in the open downs adjacent to the fea, where thefe contrivances would fail, the Samoyedes, the Of tiaks, the Tungufes, and others, have invented different arts, of which, as an example, we fhall take thofe of the Samoyedes. The rein-deer are wont to go in herds from ten to a hundred and fometimes even two hundred are feen together. When the Samoyedes go out in parties, and perceive one of thefe herds, they station their tame rein-deer on an elevated plain to the windward, then stick up, from this place to the favage herd as near as they can venture to come, without betraying themselves by the weather, long ticks, at small distances afunder, in the fnow, to which goofe-wings are tied, to be fluttered freely by the wind. This done, they plant the like pinions on the other fide, under the wind; and, the rein-deer being bufy with their pasture under the fnow, and being chiefly guided by their fcent, they generally obferve nothing of all thefe preparations. When e very thing is ready, the hunters feparate; fome hide themfelves behind their fnowy entrenchments, while others lie with bows and other weapons in the open air, to leeward, and others again go to a distance, and drive by a circuitous route the game between the terrific pinions. Scared by thefe, the wild rein-deer run direaly to the tame ones which are ftanding with the fledges; but here they are alarmed at the concealed hunters, who drive them to their companions that are provided with arms, whoimmediately commit great flaughter among them. If it fo happen that a favage herd are feeding in the proximity of a mountain, then the hunters hang up all their clothes on ftakes about the foot of the mountain, making alfo with the fame frightful pinions a broad paffage towards it, in which they drive the game together from a distance. As soon as they are come into this gangway, the women go with the fledges right across the farther end of it, fhutting the rein deer in, who immediately run round the mountain, and at every round are faluted by the shot of the hunters: As on fuch occafions a number of people are requifite, the Samoyedes have recourse to other inventions to deceive the caution of these animals. The markfman goes, for example, clad entirely in rein deer skins, stoop. ing in the middle of five or fix rein. deer trained to this purpofe, which he leads by a rope faftened to his girdle, and thus is enabled to approach very near to the wild herd, without being betrayed. In autumn, when the rein-deer are in heat, the hunters choose out a vigorous buck from their droves, to whofe antlers they tienoofes, and then turn him loofe among the wild herd. The wild ftag, on spying a ftrange rival capering among his females, rushes on to fight him. During the combat, he fo entangles his antlers in the loops, that when he defcries the hunter and strives to ef cape, the tame buck ftrikes his head to the ground, and there pins his antagonit faft till the marksman can kill him. Defcription of the Sea Bear. The fea-bears appear in troops in the Eaftern ocean, principally between the Kurilly and the Aleutan Iflands. Iflands. The largest of these animals are ninety English inches in length. and weigh eighteen or twenty pood. They resemble no land animal more than the bear, excepting only the feet, and the hinder part of the body, which terminates in a grotefque figure. What is more fingular in the ftructure of these animals is their finny feet, having not only joints and toes, by which they are enabled to go on fhore, to fit on their breech like the dog, and to use their paws in various ways, but likewife, by means of the web between their toes, to fwim with equal eafe. The manners of thefe animals are fo peculiar and extraordinary, that the account of them would be deemed a fiction, were it not accredited by the teftimony of a fagacious and learned obferver The affection of the mother for her young is exceedingly great; and they, in return, endeavour to divert her by various kinds of frolicfome play. On feeing thefe gambols, itfeems as if they were exercifing feats of wrestling; one ftriving to give the other a fall; and if the father comes up growling, he drives the the wreftles afunder, coaxes the conqueror, and even tries himfelf to throw him to the ground; the greater the refiftance fhown by the latter, the more he gains the love of the parents to whom, on the other hand, their flothful or timid children appear to give but little joy. Though polygamy prevails among the fea-bears, and fome of them have as many as fifty wives, yet every one watches over his offspring with uncommon jealoufy, and is exceffively furious if a stranger come, too near them. Even when they lie by thoufands on the beach, they are always divided family-wife into companies, and in like manner they fwim together in the ocean. The aged, who no longer have any wives, live folitary, and are, of all, the moft grim: thefe frequently pafs a whole month on the shore in fleep, without taking any food; but whatever approaches them, whether man or beaft, they fall upon with the most outrageous fury. The fea-bears, at times, wage bloody wars together, the ufual ground of hoftility being either the females or a good couching place. When two are contending againft one, others come up to affift the weaker party, and during the combat, the fwimming fpectators raife their heads above the water, and calmly look on for a length of time, till they alfo find a motive for mingling in the fight. Sometimes thefe conflicting armies cover a tract on the shore of two or three verfts, and all the air refounds with their dreadful yells and growlings. It often happens that the combatants make an armistice for an hour, to recreate their forces, during which they lie befide one another without any danger; then both parties fuddenly rife up, each takes its place, and the battle begins anew with redoubled fury. This goes fo far, that they purfue one another into the fea, when those of the victorious party drag their enemies back to land, and put them to the torture of their bites fo long till at length they lie faint and exhausted, and finally perish by the talons and beaks of the ravenous birds of prey that are hovering round. The authority with which the husbands rule over their wives and children, is frequently dif played in a very tyrannical manner. When the wives, on being pursued by the hunters, abandon their cubs from affright, and thefe are carried off, the husbands immediately ceafe from purfuing the common fee, and turn upon the mother as if to demand an account of what is become of them; then feizing them with their teeth, dash them with violence againít the rocks. The wives, tunned with the blows, creep and crouch at the feet of their defpots, and, careffing them, fhed abundance of tears. While the husband continues to feel his vex |