EXTERMINATION OF THE RABBIT IN AUSTRALASIA. 379 



most exclusively feeds upon it. It has been remarked that lynxes are 

 numerous only when there are plenty of hares in the neighbourhood. At some 

 periods a sort of epidemic has destroyed vast numbers of hares in particular 

 districts, and they have not recruited again until after the lapse of several 

 years, during which the lynxes were likewise scarce." 



Prof. H. Y. Hind, in his * Narrative of the Canadian Ked 

 River Exploring Expedition of 1857* (London, 1860, vol. i., 

 p. 119), says : — 



" The unlooked-for short supply of wild rice and fish was more severely 

 felt in consequence of the unaccountable disappearance and death of the 

 rabbits, which are generally found in vast multitudes in the region of the 

 Lake of the Woods and the Winnipeg River. During the spring and 

 summer, large numbers of rabbits were found dead in the woods, owing 

 probably to the exhaustion which followed a severe winter, prolonged this 

 year [1857] to an unprecedented length in these regions." 



Speaking of the country on the bank of the Assiniboine, 

 west of Portage-la-Prairie, he says (vol. i. p. 284) : — " Everywhere 

 Rabbits were numerous, and considerable areas occur covered 

 with dead willows and aspens, barked by these animals in the 

 winter about two feet six inches above the ground." Hind also 

 relates (vol. ii. p. 52) that, when near the Riding Mountain, his 

 men " dispersed to hunt Rabbits ; a dozen were killed within a few 

 minutes, skinned and placed on sticks before the fire to roast." 



Archbishop Tache, in his'Esquisse sur le Nord-Ouest de 

 l'Amerique' (Montreal, 1869, p. 112), says:— 



" The American hare abounds periodically throughout the whole extent 

 of the ' Northern Department.' It is sometimes found there in prodigious 

 numbers ; but it is a singular fact enough that it disappears almost com- 

 pletely from time to time ; and, after these almost complete disappearances, 

 it increases again, growing in number for a period of three or four years ; 

 then there is abundance during the same space of time; afterwards a fresh 

 disappearance, This period is so regular that one knows with tolerable 

 certainty in advance when they will be numerous and when they will not. 

 Their number in years of abundance is something fabulous. It does not 

 need a good hunter to shoot a hundred in a day, and a good old woman, 

 accustomed to snaring, usually exceeded this number. I have heard of 

 twenty-five thousand killed during one winter at one single post of the 

 [Hudson's Bay] Company." 



The Hon. Dr. Schultz, in a speech before the Canadian Senate 

 on the subject of the resources of the Mackenzie River Basin, on 



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