18 ESSAYS ON WHEAT 



the same time, in connection with the raising of barley, 

 Lord Selkirk referred to the possibility of erecting a dis- 

 tillery,^^ In 1814 John Barleycorn was a king who little 

 knew the contraction that was to take place in his domin- 

 ions a century later. 



X. The Mice 



One of the most curious biological phenomena connected 

 with the North-West is the periodic rise and decline in the 

 number of rabbits and mice, with which is associated a 

 corresponding rise and decline in the numbers of the fur- 

 bearing animals, such as the mink, the lynx, the fox, and 

 \ the wolf, which feed upon them. The mice in 1825 evi- 

 , J dently attained a maximum in numbers, for Ross tells us 





that, in the autumn of that year, the fields, the woods, and 

 the plains seemed literally alive with them. They at- 

 tacked the grain after it had been stacked and almost 

 totally destroyed it. The straw and even the very stubble 

 itself was cut to pieces by them, and, for a time, it was 

 feared that the new plague would be as calamitous as the 

 grasshoppers.'**^ However, the next year the swarm of 

 mice was found to have disappeared, and the fruits of the 

 earth were no more threatened by them. 



XL The Great Flood 



In the fall of 1825, a large party of half-breeds went 

 south to pass the winter on the plains. About the twen- 

 tieth of December there was an unusually heavy snowstorm 

 which lasted for several days, in consequence of which the 

 buffalo passed beyond the hunter's reach. Most of the 

 horses died, and, before assistance could arrive, famine set 



39 Ibid. 



40 A. Ross, loc. cit., p. 97. 



