confined. Look well at the beast's eyes, the pupils, you observe, are circular; now change the "venu," to employ a legal phrase, and walk into the rodents' house, or visit the den of Arctic foxes, it will do quite as well, and mark the form of the pupillary opening in the eye of the fox; it is elliptical instead of being circular. Here then is one great mark of distinction by which you may easily know a wolf from a fox. The other generic characters may be thus summed up: The wolves have tails somewhat short and inclined to be bristly, and the middle upper incisor teeth are curiously lobed on either side. The foxes' tails are large and bushy, the hairs covering them long and silky; the mane-tailed group form no exception, as the stiff hairs do not in any way detract from the bushy appearance of the tail. The general form of the fox is much more lissome and slender than that of the wolf. In all true wolves the post-orbital process of the frontal bone is markedly convex on its upper surface, rounding off outwards and downwards, and having a well-developed point below the plane of the inter-orbital space; in the fox this bony process scarcely projects at all, and in a few exceptional cases it is even slightly concave; the bony point hardly dips at all, a deep indentation marking the process at the place where it springs from the frontal bone.

It is as well to remark that all the animals of a fox-like type found in South America, occupy a sort of intermediate position betwixt the wolves and foxes proper; indeed they are more nearly allied to the former than to the latter group, as the pupillary opening is circular, and the general form very wolf-like. Burmeister proposes a division of the South American fox-like wolves into two groups, lycalopex and pseudalopex.

The silver fox, or as it is often styled, the black fox (Vulpes argentatus), stands first in our list of fur-bearing foxes as supplying the most valuable fur. An idea may be formed of the money value of the finer skins procured from the silver foxes, when we learn that a single skin has been sold in London for the sum of £100. At the Hudson's Bay Company's London sale, held in March, 1866, silver fox skins, in number 646, realized for the best skins £30 per skin, for inferior qualities, 32s. per skin, which gives an average of £7 9s. 3d. per skin; 646 skins at £7 9s. 3d. skin per £4820 18s. 6d. I have not been able to find out the prices that silver fox skins realized at the other fur company's sales, which were held about the same time, but I shall be pretty near the truth if I assume that the amounts were equal to those of the Hudson's Bay Company's. The Messrs. Lampson generally offer for sale quite as many silver fox skins as the Hudson's Bay Company, and

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often a larger number, and Messrs. Culverwell and Co. would in all likelihood tread very closely upon the heels of the others.

I may mention incidentally, that the Hudson's Bay Company sell their stock of furs by auction in the month of March. These sales are always attended by fur dealers from foreign markets, who purchase such furs as best suit them, and consign them to Leipsig, at which city these furs are again disposed of during the great fair, and thence are distributed to all parts of the world. The other fur companies hold their sales immediately after the Hudson's Bay Company.

Granting I am right in these assumptions, I may safely say that over £14,000 is returned each year at the March fur sales for skins of the silver fox. But it must not be forgotten that this sum only represents the wholesale price; if we take into consideration that these skins are subsequently dressed and made into garments of different kinds by the furriers, and in that condition are retailed at an enormously increased tariff, we shall find that the skins of the silver fox really constitute a most important branch of

commerce.

Most of the fox skins purchased at the annual sales are for the supply of the Russian market. Silver fox skins of the finest quality, when dressed, and made into cloaks or other descriptions of wearing apparel for the Russian grandees, sell for sums of money which seem to us almost incredible. A pelisse which belonged to the late Emperor of Russia, was made entirely from the black necks of silver foxes; it may be remembered that this costly garment was displayed at the Exhibition of 1851; its actual money value was three thousand five hundred pounds sterling. Russian taste generally inclines towards dark coloured furs, hence furs which are nearly or quite black, and at the same time of a lustrous, soft, and silky texture, always command the highest prices for the supply of that particular market.

Beautiful silver fox skins are brought from the cold arid districts of North and North West America, nevertheless they will not bear comparison with those obtained from some parts of Russia. There is a popular saying, that these black fox skins of Russian production are worth their weight in gold, an assertion by the way not so far from a truism, when we read that first-rate skins have fetched four hundred roubles each.

As regards the commercial value of its fur, the cross fox (Vulpes decussatus) comes next for our consideration. The name cross fox has been bestowed upon this animal because it is distinguished by having a dark coloured cross on its

shoulders. This curious mark is formed by two stripes, one of which extends along the back; in some skins it is quite black, whilst in others it shades off through every gradation of tint, from brown to dingy yellow; the other stripe of a similar tint crosses the back stripe at the shoulders. Skins of the cross fox, when they are very conspicuously marked with either a black or a particularly dark coloured cross, are employed by some religious communities to adorn the vestments of their priests, and extravagantly high prices are frequently paid for skins so coloured, although the market value of cross fox skins is immensely below that of silver. About 3500 cross fox skins are annually disposed of at auction by the London fur companies. I may safely take as a general standard of value for cross fox skins,-a standard quite accurate enough for all practical purposes, the price paid for these skins at the March sale of 1866, on which occasion the Hudson's Bay Company disposed of 2064 cross foxes at an average rate of £1 14s. 8d. per skin, the highest price being £4, the lowest 14s.; 2064 skins at £1 14s. 8d. per skin = £3577 12s.

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The red fox (Vulpes fulvus) comes third upon our list of foxes. About thirty-six thousand skins of the red fox are sold each year at the London fur sales, and I shall take the prices red fox skins made, at the March sale of the Hudson's Bay Company for the year 1866, as a fair standard of their average value. The number of red fox skins sold was 13,746, the highest price per skin was 18s. 9d., and 4s. 9d. the lowest; this gives an average for each skin of 10s. Od. 13,746 at 10s. Od. per skin = £6901 12s.; but we must bear in mind this only represents the sale of one company's furs. To the above number of red fox skins, viz., 13,746, must be added 22,205, as quoted on Messrs. Lampson's catalogue, and 1265 for those of Messrs. Culverwell, Brooks, and Co.-in all 37,214 skins.

Turks are the great consumers of red fox fur, because it is generally employed to line the long cloaks which are so universally worn in Turkey. A very large number of red fox skins are likewise sent to Russia, as well as to the colder parts of Europe, where they are employed for making rugs for carriages and sledges, and as linings for winter garments.

In the trade these three foxes-viz., the silver, cross, and red foxes-are held to be distinct species, but there can be very little, if any, doubt that they are simply varieties of one common type. If a specimen of the black or silver fox is placed beside a red fox, the difference of colour is so marked that one is disposed to say at once that the two animals must be specifically distinct from each other; but when I go to the fur stores and arrange a hundred or more skins side by side,

I find every gradation of colour, placing the cross fox in the centre of the line, from the black at one end to the red at the other, and I defy the keenest and most experienced fur trader to say, in very many instances, to which of the three varieties of fox a skin actually belongs. The red fox, if we admit this opinion to be correct, may be said to have three distinct types of colouration-No. 1, very bright yellowish-red; No. 2, having a dark cross on the shoulders, the prevailing colour of the sides being a yellow-brown; No. 3, sometimes nearly black, at others grey and silvery. The Indians positively assert that it is by no means unusual to see these three varieties of colour exhibited in different cubs of the same litter; and that the black and red varieties constantly interbreed I know to be a fact. I state this from my own actual observation of the animals when I was trapping and hunting on the eastern and western sides of the Rocky Mountains.

Of shy and crafty habits, few fur-bearing animals are more difficult to trap than foxes. The red men in North and NorthWest America employ a fall-trap for the capture of foxes, a trap requiring the greatest care both to bait and to set it. Each foot-print must be brushed over in order to destroy every trace of scent, and this obliteration is accomplished by the trapper as he walks backwards from the trap, using for the purpose a large broom, made of cedar boughs.

The bait, which is usually a skinned ruffed grouse or a rabbit, must not be touched with the fingers. Great care, therefore, is needed during the process of stripping off the skin. The "dead-fall," so called, is a heavy tree adjusted to tumble upon the animal's back just behind the shoulders, so soon as it unsets the trap. The "red trappers" have an idea that if a fur-bearing animal be not instantly killed the fur looses all its gloss. The same sort of idea is entertained by the metropolitan "white savages," who brutally skin unfortunate cats whilst they are alive. The inhuman monsters' pitiful excuse is, "if the cat was killed prior to its being flayed the fur would possess no gloss," hence the skin would lose much of its value. For reasons similar to the above North American savages seldom set steel traps for the capture of foxes, martens, or indeed any of the fur-bearers, the value of whose fur in great measure depends upon its silky and lustrous surface. The skins are stripped off in a peculiar manner, a small incision only being made betwixt the hind legs; the skins are turned with the furside inwards during the act of flaying, and they are then dried in the sun, stretched upon a piece of board carefully shaped for the purpose.

To my mind, the prettiest and sharpest fox caught for the sake of its fur is the kitt-fox, or swift fox (Vulpes velox), which

is a very much more appropriate name. The vast prairies, not unlike grassy oceans, over which the bisons roam in countless herds, east of the Rocky Mountains, are the favourite haunts of the kitt-fox. The little fellow can outrun the fleetest horse or dog, and even the long-legged and swift-footed greyhoundwolves fail to overtake it in a fair race across the rolling plain. As the trappers aptly say, "The kitt-fox goes like a ball from a rifle." As far as my own observations have been able to settle the question, I think I may safely say that the kitt-fox is entirely confined to the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains. There is not even any tradition, so far as I know, existing amongst the Red Indians concerning the existence of the kittfox west of the Rocky Mountain range; and, moreover, they do not even know the animal by name. I sought information from the Hudson's Bay Company's traders and the white trappers I from time to time met with, relative to their knowledge of the kitt-fox being known anywhere in our possessions westward of the Rocky Mountains; but in no case could I discover that the animal had either been seen or trapped. The number of kitt-fox skins sold in London annually, when compared with either red or grey fox skins, seems to be a very diminutive quantity, nevertheless, 8657 skins of the kitt-fox is about the yearly supply sent to our markets.

This quaint little fox differs entirely from all the other furbearing foxes. Firstly, we are amazed at its diminutive size when contrasted with its brethren. The extreme length of the kitt fox, measured from the tip of the nose to the root of the tail, does not exceed twenty-four inches; the tail is likewise remarkably short for a fox, being only from nine to ten inches from its junction with the body to the very extremity of its brush-like termination. The limbs are short, but strongly formed, which gives to the animal an appearance of being disproportionately long for its height. The toes are each armed with a claw, very much curved and always sharp, and during the winter months the soles of the feet are clothed with a perfect mat of hair-a good coating of hair invariably covers the lower part of the feet during the summer, but it is not nearly so thick and so dense as it is in the winter.

We can easily see the utility of this hairy kind of shoe or mocassin-it affords perfect protection to the fleshy "pads whilst the animal is going at full speed over angular stones and rocks, or over that still sharper material, the crust upon the frozen snow.

The fur of the kitt-fox is close, soft, velvety, and very like dressed seal-fur to the touch. The head is remarkably short, and very broad between the ears, and the skull exhibits a very close analogy to that of the red fox, except that it is consider