908 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



dead. The failure extends throughout Hudson Bay Terri- 

 tory at the same time and there is no tract or region to which 

 they can migrate, where we have not posts or into which our 

 hunters have not penetrated." 



This seems to prove that they are not migratory, and the 

 aggregate fur returns of the whole country afford conclusive 

 evidence that though there may be some local migrations, the 

 fluctuations are general. That the whole Marten population 

 increases and decreases with fair regularity in periods of eight 

 to ten years. MacFarlane thinks that there is some migration 

 but that other things enter into the problem. He believes that 

 the abundance of the Martens is a direct result of abundance of 

 Rabbits, and when the Rabbits fail, many Martens die, others 

 migrate. His remarks" are as follows: 



"The scarcity and abundance of Marten and Lynx 

 depend upon the scarcity and abundance of the Rabbit or 

 Hare. Many Indians assert that Marten and Lynx (of which, 

 by the way, not a few die off, especially when Hares are scarce) 

 migrate, as well as most of the Rabbits which are not snared, 

 etc., by the natives, or carried off by disease, and as they are 

 not uniformly abundant all over the five territories (apart from 

 the fact that they suddenly appear in localities where they 

 had previously for a season or so been conspicuous by their 

 absence) there seems to be good ground for the supposition 

 that they migrate. There are other circumstances, also, such 

 as an unfavourable season for breeding, a scarcity of the re- 

 (piired food, and the destruction by fire of the extensive areas 

 of forest, which would, of course, more or less affect the 

 abundance of these and other species of animals in certain 

 localities." 



Moreover, he does not consider trapping the cause of the 

 disappearance. He writes: 



"The theory of exhausting any wild tract of country by 

 overtrapping will not apply to the territories of the Hudson's 

 Bay Company. When Marten are abundant in good years, 



° In recent letter. 



