﻿1848. HARES. 211 



On the top of the Rampart Cliffs we found a 

 large body of Hare Indians encamped. This is a 

 common summer haunt of these people, who resort 

 thither to avail themselves of the productive fishery 

 which exists above the defile. At this time, owing 

 to the river not having subsided so rapidly as usual, 

 they were taking only a small number of fish, and, 

 consequently, were complaining of want of food. 

 This people, and most of the tribes who live the 

 whole year on the immediate banks of the Mackenzie, 

 depend greatly for subsistence on the hare {Lepus 

 americanus). Of these animals they kill incre- 

 dible numbers ; but every six or seven years, from 

 some cause, the hares disappear suddenly through- 

 out the whole country; so that not one can be 

 found either dead or alive. In the following year 

 a few reappear, and in three years they are as 

 numerous as before. The Canadian lynx migrates 

 when the hares, on which it chiefly preys, become 

 scarce. The musk rat is subject to periodical mur- 

 rains, when great numbers lie dead in their nests ; 

 but the dead hares are not found, whence we may 

 conjecture that when their numbers become ex- 

 cessive they disappear by migration. I could not 

 learn, however, that the Indians had ever seen 

 them travelling in large bands. 



The Hare Indians are a tribe of the Tinne or 

 Chepewyan nation, and speak a language differing 



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