Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/526

 494 FOX altogether larger than the common fox of Europe, and the fur is longer and softer, the colour more brilliant, and the muzzle less extended. According to Sir J. llichardson, it preys largely on the smaller animals of the rat family, and is very fond of fish. &quot; The red fox,&quot; he says, &quot; does not possess the wind of its English congener. It runs for about 100 yards with great swiftness, but its strength is exhausted in the first burst, and it is soon overtaken by a wolf or a mounted horseman.&quot; In Canada and the United States it is largely hunted for its valuable fur, about 60,000 skins of this species being annually imported into the London market. There are several well-known varieties of the red fox, as the cross fox and the black or silver fox. The latter is very scarce, and its fur is more valuable than any other found in North America. La Hontan states that in his time a skin of the silver fox was worth its weight in gold, and an unusually fine skin has been sold in the London market for &amp;lt;50. The fur is sometimes of a uniform black shining colour, except at the tip of the tail, which is white ; but more usually it has a hoary appearance from the admixture of white tipped hairs with those entirely black. This fox is exceedingly shy and difficult of approach, owing probably to the persistency with which it is hunted by the fur traders. About 1600 skins of the silver fox are annually imported into Britain. The Arctic Fox (Vulpes lagopus) is an inhabitant of the boreal regions of Europe, Asia, and America. It is somewhat smaller than the European fox, its ears being less pointed and the muzzle shorter. The soles of its feet are densely furred, resembling those of a hare, hence its specific name, lagopus. As with many Arctic animals the colour of its fur changes with the season, being in most cases of a pure white colour in winter, with the exception of a few black hairs at the extremity of the tail. Towards the end of April, however, when the Arctic snows begin to disappear, the long white fur gives place to shorter hair of a dark brown or sooty colour. Occasionally a dark-coloured fox may be seen in winter, and a white one in summer, and in Iceland, according to Professor Newton, the winter coat differs very slightly in colour from that of summer, probably owing to the com paratively mild character of the Icelandic winter. The Arctic fox has little of the proverbial cunning of its kind, having been seen to walk unsuspiciously into the trap which had been baited in its presence. It is an exceedingly cleanly animal, and the fetid odour characteristic of the entire genus is almost absent in this species. It differs also from the common fox in being gregarious, living, according to Richardson, in little villages consisting of 20 or 30 burrows placed near each other. The Arctic foxes seek their food, which consists of lemmings, birds, eggs, and carrion, at night, and their first impulse, says Captain Lyon, on securing it is to hide it, even though suffering severely from hunger. It was suggested some years ago by Pro fessor Newton that this species supported itself during winter on a store of provisions laid up during summer, and Captain Feilden was able during the recent polar expedition (1875) to confirm this. When in Grinnell Land he and his companions came upon Arctic foxes, and were greatly surprised on discovering numerous deposits of dead lem mings. &quot; In one nook, &quot; says Captain Feilden, &quot; under a rock we pulled out over 50 ; we disturbed numerous caches of 20 and 30, and the ground was honeycombed with holes, each of which contained several bodies of these little animals, a small quantity of earth being placed over them &quot; (A Voyage to the Polar Sea, by Captain Sir G. Nares, 1878). Nearly 10,000 skins of the Arctic fox, chiefly in winter fur, are annually brought into Britain. Foxes are found fossil in caverns in many parts of Europe, and extinct species occur in the Tertiary deposits of both hemispheres. (j. GI.) FOX, CHARLES JAMES (1 749-1 80C), born on the 24th of January 1749, at 9 Conduit Street, in the city of Westminster, was the third son of Henry Fox, first Lord Holland. His mother was the eldest daughter of the second duke of Richmond. As his great-great-grandmother was duchess of Portsmouth, he had in his veins the blood of Charles II. of England and Henry IV. of France. His paternal grandfather, Sir Stephen Fox, was born shortly after Charles I. ascended the throne, and died shortly after the accession of George I. The public services of this member of the Fox family have received less notice than they deserve. He was a yeoman s son who, having been taught to read, write, and cipher, was considered capable of rising in the Avorld. When a youth he first obtained a situation in the household of the earl of Northumberland ; then he entered the service of Lord Percy, the earl s brother, and he was present with the royalist army at the battle of Worcester as Lord Percy s deputy at the ordnance board. Accompanying Charles II. in his flight to the Continent, he served him in a menial capacity during his exile, till he was promoted to be keeper of the privy purse. He was employed as intermediary between the king and General Monk. Honours and emolument were Ids reward after the Restoration : he was knighted, and appointed to the lucrative offices of clerk of the green cloth and paymaster of the forces. He entered the House of Commons, first as member for Salisbury, and secondly for Westminster. He succeeded the earl of Rochester as a commissioner of the treasury, filling that office for 23 years and during three reigns. At the mature age of seventy-seven he married for the second time ; four children were the issue of this marriage. He died in 1716 at the age of eighty-nine, and left a large fortune. It is his distinction to have founded Chelsea hospital, and to have contributed 13,000 in aid of this laudable public work. Though his place as a statesman is in the second or even the third rank, yet he was a useful man in his generation, and a public servant who creditably discharged all the duties with which he was entrusted. Unlike other statesmen of his day, he grew rich in the service of the nation without being suspected of corruption, and without forfeiting the esteem of his contemporaries. Sir Stephen Fox s second son by his second marriage was named Henry. Inheriting a large share of the riches which his father had accumu lated, he squandered it soon after attaining his majority. Henry Fox went to the Continent to escape from his creditors. There he made the acquaintance of a country woman of fortune, who became his patroness and was so lavish with her purse that, after several years absence, he was in a position to return home and to enter parliament as member for Hindon. He became the favourite pupil and devoted supporter of Sir Robert Walpole, achieving unequalled and unenviable proficiency in the worst political arts of his master and model. As a speaker he was fluent and self-possessed, imperturbable under attack, audacious in exposition or retort, and able to hold his own against Pitt himself. Thus he made himself a power in the House of Commons, and an indispensable member of several adminis trations, He heaped up riches when acting as paymaster of the forces during the war which Pitt conducted with extraordinary vigour, and in which the nation was intoxi cated with glory. He served under the earl of Bute in order that he might exercise his skill in cajolery and cor ruption to induce the House of Commons to approve of the treaty of Paris; as a recompense, he was raised to the House of Lords with the title of Baron Holland. He strove, but in vain, to obtain promotion to the dignity of an earl, a dignity upon which he had set his heart, and he died a sorely disappointed man, with a reputation for cunning and unscrupulousness which cannot easily be matched, and with