644 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



At Carberry they were even more plentiful. At no time 

 were the near bushes without two or three twinkhng ghosts of 

 Bunnies silently flitting by. Many of the neighbours killed a 

 few hundred to lay away for chicken food. I could at any 

 time have killed 50 an hour. They were in similar abundance 

 from Pembina to Pelly, between the Great Lakes and in all 

 the wooded mountains of western Manitoba, throughout the 

 Province indeed, excepting in the pine forests and on the open 

 prairies. 



Near the Spruce Hill, at the edge of the poplar woods 

 near Carberry, I stood, and looking round, counted the Rabbits 

 within a radius of 30 yards. They numbered 11, and there 

 were evidently many that I did not see; so that 20 would be a 

 safe number at which to put them. That is 20 to the acre, but 

 dividing it by 2 to allow for sparser places, it would easily 

 total 5,000 to the square mile. Assuming then that this high 

 rate of population was confined to the poplar belt that angles 

 across the Province from Dufferin to Swan River (which it was 

 not), we should have here a population of over 100,000,000 

 Rabbits. 



It was a glorious feast for the naturalist. There is an 

 inexpressible joy in seeing so much wild life, but the farmers, 

 who knew about the ravages of its cousin in Australia, began 

 to have the gravest apprehensions. Where would it stop ? At 

 present the Bunny millions were confined to the woods. But 

 another year of increase might, indeed must, make a change. 

 Already the woods are suffering from the ever-hungry hordes; 

 in another year they would be driven forth into the crops. 

 Then farewell to the old-time prosperity, good-by to the golden 

 grain. 



But the fear was groundless. Before the winter waned the 

 plague had stalked through the woods and had done its work, 

 coming and working mysteriously, silently but effectually. 

 The country from Whitemouth to Whitesand, 250 miles long 

 by 150 miles wide, was flecked with the bodies of white-furred 

 Hares. My friend. Miller Christy, who spent 1887 in Mani- 



