ATIONS 



698 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



was plenty of food at both places, and no disease among the 

 Lynxes, so it was impossible to say why they went, only he 

 was quite certain that they did go. 



A great deal of evidence of this sort could be presented. The 

 trappers generally agree that the Lynx is migratory and that it 

 follows the White-rabbit. The Rabbit, however, does not mi- 

 grate, so we may understand this to mean that the Lynxes seek 

 out the regions where the White-rabbit abounds. But an unex- 

 pected difficulty arises. If the Lynx population merely shifted, 

 the aggregate fur returns of the entire country would not 

 change, for the trappers cover the whole region every year. 



FLucTu- After spending a life-time as fur-trader, Roderick Mac- 



Farlane discusses the question as follows:" "This is one of 

 the principal periodic fur-bearing animals which regularly 

 increase and decrease in numbers about every decade. The 

 experience of observers, largely corroborated by the Company's 

 London sales, is pretty much as follows: The catch of Lynxes 

 for each (say) three seasons, when they are least numerous, or 

 rather comparatively scarce, fell sometimes as low as 4,000 or 

 5,000 skins, as the entire output for the immense extent of 

 territory covered by the Hudson's Bay Company's business 

 operations. The fourth year would double these quantities, 

 the fifth often more than doubled the fourth, the sixth doubled 

 the fifth, while the seventh almost invariably witnessed the 

 maximum trade of skins. The eighth would still be good, 

 while the ninth and tenth would each exhibit a startling de- 

 cline in the returns, which in quantity would closely corre- 

 spond with the sixth and fifth years, respectively, in each 

 decade. * * *" 



A clear idea of the wax and wane of the Lynx population 

 is found in Alexander Henry's" Journal in the Upper Red River 

 in the Years 1800 to 1808." The old fur-trader thus records'-^ 

 the Lynx skins taken in the successive seasons at 20, 67, 194, 

 167, 38, o, 4, and 4. 



" Mam. N. W. Tcr., I'rot. U. S. N. M., 1905, pp. 691-2. 

 " Journal, 1897, pp. 184, 198, 221, 245, 259, 281, 422, 440. 



