Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.2): between the years 1826 and 1836 : describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagles's circumnavigation of the globe

FOXES — WOLVES. 251 All who have seen these animals alive have been struck by their eager ferocity and disregard of man's power. Byron says, " Four creatures of great fierceness, resembling wolves, ran up to their bellies in the water to attack the boat !" also, " When any of these creatures got sight of our people, though at ever so great a distance, they ran directly at them." — " They were always called wolves by the ship's company ; but except in their size and the shape of the tail, I think they bore a greater resemblance to a fox. They are as big as a middle-sized mastiff, and their fangs are remarkably long and sharp." " They burrow in the ground, like a fox."" The Beagle's offi- cers, when employed in surveying the Falklands, were often annoyed, as well as amused, by the intrusion of these fearless animals. In size, the larger ones are about twice as bulky as an Eno-lish fox, and they stand nearly twice as high upon their less.* Their heads are coarser, and their fur is not only thicker as well as longer, but it is of a woolly nature. Referring again to a resemblance between the Falkland and Patagonian foxes, I may remark, that there is as much difference in size, in coat, and in tail, between the guanaco of Port Desire and that of Navarin Island (near Cape Horn), as there is be- tween the fox of West Falkland and that of Port Famine. What the Patagonian animal is which the Blanco Bay people called ' wolf,'-!- or to which Pigafetta alluded in his vocabulary of words used by the Patagonians at Port San Julian, as equi- valent to ' ani,'J I cannot say : I was inclined to suspect an equivoque arising out of the word ' lobo,' which means seal as well as wolf; but Lieut. Wickham says he saw a wolf near the Colorado River. § The Falkland foxes feed upon birds, rab- tudes, many of which, no doubt, are formed in the bays and rivers of the continent. Seals and sea-birds repose on the edge of the shore, whether it is ice or land, and foxes, or other animals, in search of prey, will fre- quently be carried away on the large pieces of ice which break off and are driven out to sea." — Barney, vol. iv, pp. 331-332. * The country they range over being- open, without trees, does not require them to steal along under branches, like the foxes of a woody country. t Page 107 of this volume. : Burney, vol. i. p. 37. § Page 296.