s the soles of his feet heavily furred. All this is
plain and simple classification. But how about Mr. Blue Fox of the same
size and habit as the white Arctic? Is he the Arctic fox in summer
clothing? Yes, say some trappers; and they show their pelts of an Arctic
fox taken in summer of a rusty white. But no, vow other trappers--that
is impossible, for here are blue fox-skins captured in the depths of
midwinter with not a white hair among them. Look closely at the skins.
The ears of one blue fox are long, perfect, unbitten by frost or foe--he
was a young fellow; and he is blue. Here is another with ears almost
worn to stubs by fights and many winters' frosts--he is an old fellow;
and he, too, is blue. Well, then, the blue fox may sometimes be the
white Arctic fox in summer dress; but the blue fox who is blue all the
year round, varying only in the shades of blue with the seasons, is
certainly not the white Arctic fox.

The same difficulty besets distinction of silver fox from black. The old
scientists classified these as one and the same creature. Trappers know
better. So do the later scientists who almost agree with the unlearned
trapper's verdict--there are as many species as there are foxes. Black
fox is at its best in midwinter, deep, brilliantly glossy, soft as
floss, and yet almost impenetrable--the very type of perfection of its
kind. But with the coming of the tardy Arctic spring comes a change. The
snows are barely melted in May when the sheen leaves the fur. By June,
the black hairs are streaked with gray; and the black fox is a gray fox.
Is it at some period of the transition that the black fox becomes a
silver fox, with the gray hairs as sheeny as the black and each gray
hair delicately tipped with black? That question, too, remains
unanswered; for certainly the black fox trapped when in his gray summer
coat is not the splendid silver fox of priceless value. Black fox
turning to a dull gray of midsummer may not be silver fox; but what
about gray fox turning to the beautiful glossy black of midwinter? Is
that what makes silver fox? Is silver fox simply a fine specimen of
black caught at the very period when he is blooming into his greatest
beauty? The distinctive difference between gray fox and silver is that
gray fox has gray hairs among hairs of other colour, while silver fox
has silver hair tipped with glossiest black on a foundation of downy
gray black.

Even greater confusion surrounds the origin of cros