28 TOWNSEND'S ROCKY MOUNTAIN HARE. 



and unsavory, having, like our common species, the larva of an insect 

 imbedded in its neck ; but when ■\ve arrived at Walla-Walla, in Septem- 

 ber, we found the Indians, and the persons attached to the fort, using it 

 as a common article of food. Immediately after we arrived, we w^ere re- 

 galed with a dish of hares, and I thought I had never eaten any thing 

 more delicious. They are found in great numbers on the plains covered 

 w^ith wild Avormwood, (Artemesia.) They are so exceedingly fleet that 

 no ordinary dog can catch them. I have frequently surprised them in 

 their forms, and shot them as they leaped away, but I found it necessary 

 to be very expeditious and to pull trigger at a particular instant, or the 

 game was off among the wormwood, and I never saw it again. The In- 

 dians 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. After 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 net, 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, (L. Sylvaticus.)" " This Hare in- 

 habits the plains exclusively, and seems particularly fond of the vicinity 

 of the aromatic wormvi^ood. Immediately as you leave these bushes, in 

 journeying towards the sea, you lose sight of the Hare." 



To the above account, we added some farther information on our last 

 visit to the far West. On the 8th June, 1843, whilst our men were engaged 

 in cutting wood and bringing it on board the steamer Omega, it being ne- 

 cessary in that wild region, to stop and cut wood for fuel for the boat every 

 day, one of the crew started a young Hare, and after a short chase the 

 poor thing squatted, and was killed by a blow with a stick. It proved to 

 be the young of Lepiis Tounsendii, was large enough to have left its dam, 

 weighed rather more than one pound, and was a beautiful specimen. 

 Its irides were pure amber colour, and the eyes large ; its hair was 

 slightly curled. This Hare was captured more thein twelve himdred 

 miles east of the Rocky Mountains. On the next day, in the afternoon, 

 one of the negro fire-tenders, being out with a rifle, shot two others, both 



