The object which now fixed the attention of the naturalist was a
quadruped,--a very small one, not bigger than a medium-sized cat, but
altogether different in form and proportions. Unlike the cats, it had a
long sharp snout, and a thick bushy tail. It stood higher upon its
legs, too, than do animals of the cat kind, but the most remarkable
_feature_ about it was its ears. These were remarkable for their
length, which was out of all proportion to the size of the creature.
Its whole body was barely one foot long, and yet the ears stood full six
inches above the crown of its head! They stood quite erect, broad,
stiff, and pointed, and ending in an acute angle at the tips.
Its colour was a beautiful Isabella above, and cream-white underneath.
No; the creature was not like a cat, nor a dog neither, though it was
more like the latter than the former. But there is an animal related to
the canine family to which it bore a very strong resemblance, and that
is the fox, for it _was_ a fox, the very smallest in the world, the
"caama" of Southern Africa. And yet, correctly speaking, it was not a
fox neither, but a _fennec_.