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THROUGH SWEDEN. 179
equipage, or whatever or whomfoever they confidered as objects of
jutt fufpicion and danger, without moving farther off, even though
a man fhould come within thirty or forty paccs of them. If the
fledge ftopped, then they would immediately betake themfelves
to flight ; but if any one whiftled, the fox would ftop fhort, turn
about, and for a few feconds look the perfon in the face. A f{portf-
man, having a fowling piece with him in his fledge, would have
an opportunity of taking a tolerably fure aim, and doing great
execution among them merely by means of whiftling. We were
not without fowling pieces; but our pelices, a certain lazinefs
and heavinefs with which we were overwhelmed (the effect, no
doubt, of the climate), and the conftraint we were under from
the neceflity of accommodating our pofture to the movement of
the fledge, all confpired to make fhooting at a mark no eafy mat-
ter. Befides the report of our pieces might have frightened the
horfes.
It is alleged by fome, that the foxes of the North are of a dif-
ferent fpecies from thofe of England, and that thofe of the latter
are larger, more cunning, and wilder than thofe of the former.
Without pretending to decide this queftion, I fhall only obferve,
that the prudence of northern animals is often overcome by ex-
treme hunger, and that the cold in Great Britain is never fo long
nor fo intenfe as to reduce them to fuch extremity. As to
their ftopping fhort in the midft of their flight, on hearing a
whittle, I could never learn or conjecture what fenfation or idea
this could excite in them, Being to them an unufual found, they
Aa2 no
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