Phillips. — On Bahbit-discasc. 323 



ExTKACT of Letter from A. McBeath, Esq., re Diminution 



of Eabbits. 



Fort Qu'appelle, 2oth June, 1887. 

 My experience of this subject covers a period of nearly sixty 

 years, during which time, as an ofificei- of the Hudson Bay 

 Company, I have had opportunities of observing the periodical 

 increase and decrease of the rabbits over the whole of the 

 North-west Territories, from the Eocky Mountains to Hud- 

 son Bay, and from the shores of the Arctic Ocean to Red 

 River. Although I never made any special investigation into 

 the subject of the rabbit-disease, still, in the ordinary course of 

 my duties a certain amount of attention had of necessity to 

 be given to the question of i-abbits, as at some of the Hudson 

 Bay posts where I was stationed they, in conjunction with 

 fish, formed the principal (sometimes the only) food of the 

 company's servants, besides being fed to the hauling-dogs. 

 In some parts the Indians depended almost entirely on rabbits 

 for their existence, and I myself have known many Indians 

 dying from starvation during those years when the rabbits 

 were practically extinct. 



With regard to the exact period at which the disease ap- 

 pears among the rabbits, my experience goes to prove that 

 regularly every seven years they reach the limit of their in- 

 crease. The disease then, without any apparent cause, appears 

 among them, and during the following three years they rapidly 

 decrease, and again at the seventh year they are at their 

 height. 



As to the exact natin-e of the disease, I am unable to give 

 any detailed information further than that every rabbit I ever 

 found dead (and I have picked up thousands of them) showed 

 the same symptoms of disease — viz., a lump like an enlarged 

 gland on each side of the throat under the jaw-bones. In fact, 

 it was from this sign that we decided as to whether they were 

 fit for human food or only fit for the dogs. During all my 

 experience I never heard of any other symptoms of disease 

 being noticed. From the appearance of the dead rabbits I 

 judged they must have suffered for a considerable time before 

 they died, as they were hardly anything but skin and bone. 



In my opinion, it is to this regularly-recurring disease that 

 we must attribute the exemption of Canada from a rabbit-^sest 

 similar to that which has become such a serious evil in New 

 Zealand. As a means of reducing the pest in New Zealand, 

 I would respectfully suggest that a number of rabbits be ex- 

 ported from this coimtry there, and, being turned loose among 

 the native rabbits, would, in my opinion, by cross-breeding, 

 introduce their disease, which I believe to be inherent in their 

 blood. A. McBeath. 



