Page:Polar Exploration - Bruce - 1911.djvu/127

Rh and other food-stuffs, feeding even out of the hands of the explorers, and sleeping within a few yards of the tent, preferably on the tops of the covered caches of provisions. On one occasion when standing cooking by the canteen I had emptied a tin of condensed milk and had dropped it on the ground, when a fox came between my legs from behind and made off with the tin which was lying between the canteen and myself. Yet for all their boldness and audacity, it was impossible to catch them, for while giving them bacon or something else out of your hand, and watching an opportunity to pounce upon them and secure them, the fox too had its pair of wonderful eyes fixed upon yours and was ready at the slightest sign of any hostile move on your part. When I have been chaining, I have known them lick the fat off the steel measuring-tape, and bite off the straps of my sextant-case lying on the ground a few yards from me.

In August they lie in wait in shallow holes in the ground, watching the young looms (guillemots) coming down from the cliffs accompanied by the old birds. Should the young bird fall short of the sea, the fox immediately seizes it, provided the chick has escaped the fate of being swallowed whole by a glaucous gull. On one occasion I was watching, under cover of a large rock, two or three foxes lying