382 INCREASE AND DECREASE OF RABBITS. 



New Year's day in the far north of the Hudson's 

 Bay Company's territories. 



It is a very remarkable and well established 

 circumstance that the rabbits in the north of America 

 are subject to periodical conditions of increase and 

 reduction in their numbers. They experience cycles 

 of progress and decay, comprising about eight or 

 nine years, and so certain is this law of revolution 

 that Whites and Indians alike make their calculations 

 with a view to its occurrence. Overrunning the land 

 in astonishing quantities one year, these animals 

 gradually lessen their numbers annually, until very 

 few can be caught ; having arrived at their minimum, 

 they then gradually increase, until again reaching 

 their maximum advance. 



This remarkable ebb and flow of life is ascribed 

 to more than one cause. It is said that the rabbits 

 migrate at regular intervals to avoid the merciless 

 persecutions of their many enemies, lynx, wolf, fox, 

 marten, ermine, and even ravens ; but another and 

 more probable cause assigned is their visitation by an 

 epidemic which is fatal to myriads. The Indians 

 have, I was told, an idea that when rabbits are 

 not to be found near, they have gone up into the 

 clouds, and that they frequently hear them crying 

 there. 



