CAPE SABLE 91 



thicket too risky and reluctantly gave it up. 

 The next day the Doctor found a very large, 

 freshly-shed rattler skin at the cape. Some 

 people we met there told us never had rattlers 

 been so abundant; they were killing them every 

 day. 



In his delightful book, The Naturalist in La 

 Plata, Hudson tells of a "wave of life" and 

 says: "Turning back to 1872-3, I find in my 

 note book for that season a history of one of those 

 waves of life for I can think of no better name 

 for the phenomenon in question that are of such 

 frequent occurrence in thinly settled regions. . . . 

 An exceptionally bounteous season, the accidental 

 mitigation of a check, or other favorable circum- 

 stance, often causes an increase so sudden and 

 inordinate of small, prolific species, that when we 

 actually witness it we are no longer surprised at 

 the notion prevalent amongst the common people, 

 that mice, frogs, crickets, etc., are occasionally 

 rained down from the clouds." He proceeds to 

 tell how, that same year, owing to favorable con- 

 ditions, the country was overrun with a variety 

 of the smaller wild animals, bumblebees, mice, 

 storks, owls, and other things; that later when the 



