Health and Woodland Medicine 325 



keeping touch with the ship, but the wooded regions of 

 Canada and Alaska where there are hundreds, yes, thou- 

 sands of travelers each year, and where each year one hears 

 of some one dying of starvation, through ignorance of the 

 few emergency foods that abound in that country. 



Fish are not included among these foods, for the wanderer 

 in the snow is not likely to be equipped with fish hook, 

 spear or net. The fish, moreover, are in winter protected 

 by ice of great thickness. Animal food is exceedingly 

 scarce at such times, the forms most Ukely to be found are 

 rabbits, mice, insect-borers, ants, and rawhide gear. Of 

 course the mounted Indian never starved, because he would 

 bleed his horse each day and live on the blood; taking care 

 that his steed had fodder enough to keep up his strength. 

 But we must assume that this source of food is not avail- 

 able — that our traveler is on foot. 



A well-known explorer states in his book that northern 

 expeditions should be undertaken chiefly or only in rabbit 

 years — that is, when rabbits are at the maximum of their 

 remarkable periodic increase. While there is some truth 

 in this, we must remember, first, a rabbit year in one 

 region is not necessarily a rabbit year in another, so we 

 could not foretell with certainty what would be a season of 

 abundant food in the region proposed for the expedition; 

 second, men will at any risk go into the vast northern 

 wilderness every year, for it is destined to be the great field 

 for exploration, and every traveler there ought to know 

 the foods he can count on finding at all times. 



Rabbits. If when in straits for food he have the luck 

 to be in a rabbit country, he should select a thicket in 

 which their tracks and runs are very numerous. By quietly 

 walking around it, he is Hkely to see one of these silent, 

 ghostlike hares, and can easily secure it with his gun. 

 Without a gun his next best rehance is on snares. String, 



