Note 43 — PETER KALM’s TRAVELS. (continued 4)

The red Foxes are very scarce here: they are entirely the same with the European sort. Mr. Bartram, and several others assured me, that according to the unanimous testimony of the Indians, this kind of foxes never was in the country, before the Europeans settled in it. But of the manner of their coming over I have two different accounts: Mr. Bartram and several other people were told by the Indians, that these foxes came into America soon after the arrival of the Europeans, after an extraordinary cold winter, when all the sea to the northward was frozen: from hence they would infer, that they could perhaps get over to America upon the ice from Greenland or the northern parts of Europe and Asia. But Mr. Evans, and some others assured me that the following account was still known by the people. A gentleman of fortune in New England, who had a great inclination for hunting, brought over a great number of foxes from Europe, and let them loose in his territories, that he might be able to indulge his passion for hunting.43 This is said to have happened almost at the very beginning of New England’s being peopled with European inhabitants. These foxes were believed to have so multiplied, that all the red foxes in the country were their offspring. At present they are reckoned among the noxious creatures in these parts; for they are not contented, as the grey foxes with killing fowl; but they likewise devour the lambs. In Pensylvania therefore there is a reward of two shillings for killing an old fox, and of one shilling for killing a young one. And in all the other provinces there are likewise rewards offer’d for killing them, Their skin is in great request, and is sold as dear as that of the grey foxes, that is two shillings and six-pence, in Pensylvanian currency.