APPENDIX. 327 



observed it in all similar situations during our route to the Co- 

 lumbia. When first seen, which was in July, it was lean and 

 unsavory, having, like our common species, the larva of an in- 

 sect imbedded in its neck, but when we arrived at Walla-walla, 

 in September, we found the Indians, and the persons attached to 

 the fort, using them as a common article of food. Immediately 

 after we arrived we were regaled with a dish of hares, and I 

 thought I had never eaten anything more delicious. They are 

 found here in great numbers on the plains covered with worm- 

 wood, (Artemesia,) under the close branches of which they often 

 squat when pursued. I will not be qualified that this animal 

 "can leap twenty-one feet at a bound," but it is so exceedingly 

 fleet, that no ordinary dog can catch it. I have frequently sur- 

 prised it in its form, and shot it as it leapt away, but I found it 

 necessary to be very expeditious, and to pull trigger at a par- 

 ticular instant, or the game was off amongst the wormwood, and 

 I never saw it again. 



The Indians kill them with arrows, by approaching them 

 stealthily as they lie concealed under the bushes, and in winter 

 take them with nets. To do this, some one or two hundred 

 Indians, men, women, and children, collect and enclose a large 

 space with a slight net, about five feet wide, made of hemp ; the 

 net is kept in a vertical position by pointed sticks attached to it, 

 and driven into the ground. These sticks are placed about five 

 or six feet apart, and at each one an Indian is stationed with a 

 short club in his hand. Afler these arrangements are completed, 

 a large number of Indians enter the circle, and beat the bushes 

 in every direction. The frightened hares dart off towards the 

 nets, and, in attempting to pass, are knocked on the head and 

 secured. 



Mr. Pambrun, the superintendent of Fort Walla-walla, from 

 whom I obtained this account, says that he has often participated 

 in this sport with the Indians, and has known several hundred to 

 be thus taken in a day. When captured alive, it does not scream 

 like the common gray rabbit, (Lepvs sylvaticiis.) 



This species inhabits the plains exclusively, and seems par- 

 ticularly fond of the vicinity of the aromatic wormwood. Imme- 

 diately as you leave these bushes, in journeying towards the sea, 

 you lose sight of the hare. — Towns, in lit. to Dr. Bachman. 



