Black fox

“ And a prize likewise in a woman's eyes is a peerless black fox skin. Put your faith in the mountain cat if you lie within his lair; Trust the fangs of the mother-wolf, and the claws of the lead-ripped bear; But oh, of the wiles and the gold-tooth smiles of a dance-hall wench beware! Wherefore it was beyond all laws that lusts of man restrain, A man drank deep and sank to sleep never to wake again; And the Yukon swallowed through a hole the cold corpse of the slain. III. The black fox skin a shadow cast from the roof nigh to the floor ”

“ No, I withdraw in favour of Black Fox, and we won't even mention your name. Black Fox has been a good King; he has saved many of us from a Trap; besides, he wears the Royal Robe. Look at him! his Mother and all his Brothers and Sisters are red, except Stripes, the Baby, who is a Cross; does that not show that he has been selected for royal honours? Among ourselves each one is like his Brother--there is little difference. The Minks are alike, the Otter are alike, the Wolves are alike--all are alike; except, of course, that one may be a little larger or a little darker than the other. ”

“ Bearing his prize of a black fox pelt, out of the Wild he came.
His cheeks were blanched as the flume-head foam when the brown spring freshets flow;
Deep in their dark, sin-calcined pits were his sombre eyes aglow;
They knew him far for the fitful man who spat forth blood on the snow.
“Did ever you see such a skin?” quoth he; “there’s nought in the world so fine —
Such fullness of fur as black as the night, such lustre, such size, such shine;
It’s life to a one-lunged man like me; it’s London, it’s women, it’s wine.
“The Moose-hides called it the devil-fox, and swore that no man could kill ”

“ There is no mistaking black fox. If the trapper does not see the black fox scurrying over the snow, the tell-tale char [Pg 269] acteristics of the footprints are the length and strength of the leaps. Across these leaps the hunter leaves his traps. Does he hope for a silver fox? Does every prospector expect to find gold nuggets? In the heyday of fur company prosperity, not half a dozen true silver foxes would be sent out in a year. To-day I doubt if more than one good silver fox is sent out in half a dozen years. ”

“ Often it is difficult to decide where one type leaves off and another begins. The Cross Fox stands midway between the Red and Black, with some of the yellow color of the former on the sides of the neck and behind the foreleg, while the remainder of the general color is grizzled gray-brown laid across his shoulders in a more or less distinct cross. The Black Fox varies in color from very dark iron-gray to dark brown or black, with a slight wash of white-tipped hairs over the head, body and tail. ”

“ Canadian foxes present themselves patriotically in red, white, and blue, and there are also black foxes and silver ones. The black-fox is only less elusive than the black tulip or the blue rose, and yet he inhabits the same section and cohabits often the same burrow with the red and the cross-fox. By the way, a cross-fox is not a hybrid; he bears the sign of the cross on his shoulders, and so his name. The red-fox of America is not dissimilar to the red-fox of Europe, and yet a red-fox in Canada may have a silver-fox for its mother and itself give birth to a silver-cub. ”

“ Had the fox not been preserved for the chase, it would long ago have been extinct. Dogs have a strong repugnance to the wolf, but delight in the chase of the fox. In cold countries, foxes are of various colours. Red foxes are so abundant in the wooded districts of the fur countries, that many thousand skins are annually exported from America to Britain. The fur of the black fox is highly valued. ”

“ In their road-house down by the river-trail they waited and watched for prey;
With wine and song they joyed night long, and they slept like swine by day.
For things were done in the Midnight Sun that no tongue will ever tell;
And men there be who walk earth-free, but whose names are writ in hell —
Are writ in flames with the guilty names of Fournier and Labelle.
Put not your trust in a poke of dust would ye sleep the sleep of sin;
For there be those who would rob your clothes ere yet the dawn comes in;
And a prize likewise in a woman’s eyes is a peerless black fox skin. ”

“ In hilly countries the fox becomes a powerful and destructive animal, killing not only game but lambs.
The value of the foxes as fur-bearing animals is immense. Only white, blue, and black skins seem to be appreciated in England. The black fox has been known to fetch 150 guineas a skin. But in the East, from Asia Minor to China, red, grey, and yellow fox-skins are the lining of every rich man's winter wraps. Splendid mixed robes are made by the Chinese by inserting portions of cross fox-skins into coats of cut sable, giving the idea that it is the fur of a new animal. ”

“ He is remarkably playful, but, like all savage creatures half reclaimed, will on the least offence bite even those with whom he is most familiar.
He is never to be fully tamed; he languishes when deprived of liberty, and if kept too long in a domestic state he dies of chagrin. When abroad, he is often seen to amuse himself with his fine bushy tail, running sometimes for a considerable while in circles to catch it. In cold weather he wraps it about his nose.
In the northern countries there is a black fox, a variety of the common fox. ”

“ As regards density of colour the skunk or black marten has the blackest fur, and some cats of the domestic kind, specially reared for their fur, are nearly black. Black bears have occasionally very black coats, but the majority have a brownish underwool. The natural black fox is a member of the silver fox family and is very rare, the skins bringing a high price. Most silver foxes have dark necks and in some the dark shade runs a quarter, half-way, or three-quarters, or even the whole length of the skin, but it is rather of a brownish hue. ”

“ The natives make little or no use of these skins, preferring the woolen blanket of commerce. The red and cross fox is found everywhere in the Territory, and its skin is comparatively cheap. It is singular that the blue fox is found only on the islands of St. Paul, St. George, Attoo, and Atkha, while the white fox is to be sought only at the far north. There is also the black fox, which, however, is a great rarity, thought to be an occasional accident of nature; the skins always bring extravagant prices from the traders. ”

“ There on the bare dry ground the vixen laid us—my two sisters and me. If I was like the baby cubs I have since seen, I was born blind, my muzzle was blunt and rounded, and my coat as black as a crow, the only white about me being a few hairs in the tag of my tiny brush. Even at the time when I first remember what I was like my fur was still a very dark color and bore no resemblance to the russet hue of a full-grown fox.
This was a few weeks after my eyes were opened, when, after awaking from our first sleep, we were in the habit of sunning ourselves just [Pg 10] inside the mouth of the earth. ”

“ Litters have been found in the woods with some black pups among the reds, or silvers among the reds. The black fox is distinguished from others by the total absence of white or silver hairs, except on the tip of the tail. ”

“ Morgan did not stop to hunt, and at first the man did not understand why. Then he came to know that there was nothing to hunt. The land that he mushed through was a great, white, empty desert, where nothing lived except himself, his dogs, and the fleeing fox.
There were no tracks of the snow-shoe rabbit—none even of mice, no eyes gleaming from the brush clumps, no bark ripped from trees, no tundra cut off close by the teeth of caribou. The fox knew by his unerring instinct that he must go straight on to the next valley before his strength was gone. ”

“ His bushy tail is the envied trophy of the huntsman, who calls it a brush. His colours are white, black, red, yellow, bluish, or variegated; and in cold climates he always turns white in winter. The father takes no care of his children; but the mother performs her duty with the most exemplary devotion for four months.
The fox is generally a solitary, suspicious animal; even when as much tamed as he can be, he seems to think he is going to be deceived and ill-treated: perhaps he judges of others by himself. ”

“ The most obvious difference is in color: the throat and chest of the old fox are whitish, also the tip of the tail; the back of the ears, the front and outer surface of the paws to near the elbows and knees, are black, and there are scattered black hairs on the tail; the rest of the body is reddish brown; and as a whole the animal would be called a "red fox," although a stripe across the shoulders of a darker red might entitle it to the name of "cross" fox. ”

“ The red fox is to be found all over the continent as far south as Georgia, and where the winters are cold his long and silky fur becomes of marketable value, especially in its darker varieties. The animal has touches of black on the tail and the legs, and this seems liable to affect the whole pelage in the North. Thus some are all black; others are black with every hair tipped with white, and are called "silvers"; others have a blackish band along the spine and across the shoulders. ”

“ Quickly descending the slope, he enters the bushes whence the sound proceeds, and pauses when within a yard or two of his trap to peer through the gloom. A cloud passes off the moon, and a faint ray reveals, it may be, a beautiful black fox caught in the snare. A slight blow on the snout from Stemaw's axe-handle kills the unfortunate animal; in ten minutes more it is tied to his sledge, the trap is reset and again covered over with snow, so that it is almost impossible to tell that any thing is there; and the Indian pursues his way. ”

“ It is a clever and cunning animal, being often able to elude the hounds in the chase. The Arctic fox, which ranges southward to Labrador and Newfoundland, has beautiful silky fur, bluish or brown in summer and pure white in winter. The black fox or silver fox holds first place among fur-bearers ”

“ The hair of the white fox is not much esteemed, because the hairs fall easily off; the silver-grey is better, and the blue and striped are prized on account of their rarity, but the black is the most valuable, and yields to none but the sable. There are foxes in Spitzbergen, Greenland, Lapland, and in Canada; in the latter place there are some of the striped species, the common kind are not so red as those in France, but their hair is longer and more plentiful. ”

“ The wool is, however, poor compared to the otter and beaver, and the pelt thin and in no way comparable to them in strength. White hares are frequently sold as white fox, but the fur is weak, brittle and exceedingly poor compared to fox and possesses no thick underwool. Foxes, too, and badger are dyed a brownish black, and white hairs inserted to imitate silver fox, but the white hairs are too coarse and the colour too dense to mislead any one who knows the real article. But if sold upon its own merits, pointed fox is a durable fur. ”

“ The blue fox of commerce is a color phase of this species, usually of sporadic occurrence, like the black phase of the red fox. The white fox makes its burrow either in a dry mound, under a large rock, or in the snow, where its young are brought forth and cared for with the devotion which appears to characterize all foxes. ”

“ The fur of the Silver Fox is considered by man to be one of the choicest of all furs and tremendous prices are paid for it. This means, of course, that a young Fox whose coat is black will need to be very smart indeed if he would live to old age, for once he has been seen by man he will be hunted unceasingly. ”

“ These, apart from their difference of color, differ very much in their characteristics. They are not cunning; on the contrary, they are positively stupid. They will readily catch in deadfalls, and will walk into an open, uncovered steel trap in daylight! Again the flesh of the arctic fox is eaten as readily as that of the hare or white partridge; all other foxes are carrion; even a starving Indian would give them the go-by.
Of the other or true fox we have many colors and shades of color, and I give them in their cash value rotation, beginning with the black or pole fox; First, black or pole ”

“ Is a smaller species than the common Fox, and has a much longer fur to fit him for the severe cold which he necessarily experiences in the Polar regions which he inhabits. The colour of the fur is frequently a bluish leaden gray, from which circumstance it is sometimes called the Blue Fox; some specimens are brownish, others nearly black. The fur becomes pure white in the winter, and in this state the Arctic Fox is an exceedingly pretty animal. This species is captured for the sake of its skin, the bluish specimens being preferred. ”

“ The head and body of the Fox measures usually a trifle over two feet in length, and the bushy, white-tipped tail adds at least another foot to his total length when running; but examples have been recorded greatly exceeding these measurements. He stands only about fourteen inches high at the shoulder. The beautiful fur is russet or red-brown above and white on the under parts. The front of the limbs and the back of the ears are black. ”