56 
JOURNAL OF MAMMALOGY 
RECENT LITERATURE 
Cabot, William Brooks. Labrador. Boston; Small, Maynard & Co. 
8 VO., xiii + 354 pp., illustr., 1921. 
A land of great spaces, of windswept hills and strong rivers, of uncounted 
lakes and uncharted coasts, Labrador is today the only remaining wilderness in 
eastern North America. That it has been so little visited is due in part to its 
forbidding aspect, the difficulty of transport, the almost unbelievable multitudes 
of mosquitoes, conditions which combine to repel the casual traveler. For these 
very reasons it continues to be the home of a tribe of splendid Indians, the 
Naskapi, who live their primitive hunter life little touched by the all-destroy- 
ing white man. 
The author tells of a series of summer excursions mainly into the more northern 
portion along the east coast of the peninsula, partly with a view to geographical 
work, largely, however, for the study of these same Indians into whose favor he 
has patiently won his way. 
Though chiefly concerned with other things, the book contains many valuable 
notes on mammals. In especial, the chapter devoted to ‘‘Mice” should become 
a classic to stand with Darwin’s bumblebees. The species is apparently the 
Labrador meadow mouse (Microtus enixus). “Like the rabbit it increases in 
numbers through a term of years and suddenly disappears. . . . . In 1903, 
my first year in the country, mice were not noticeably plenty. Caribou had been 
abundant through the winter, by early July passing north in large numbers close 
to the coast. There were some falcons about, the splendid light-colored gyr- 
falcons, besides rough-legged hawks, dark and almost equally fierce. Both kinds 
breed in cliffs about the islands. I saw few ptarmigan Foxes, the 
most important fur game, were fairly plenty. By 1904 mice were distinctly 
abundant. Hawks were more numerous, the white ones shrilling from many 
cliffs as we approached their nests. It was that year, I think, perhaps the next, 
that foxes were noted by the shore people as being scattered and shy; they would 
not take bait Ptarmigan were fairly numerous. The wolverene we 
shot was full of mice. There were no caribou to speak of. We saw a good many 
wolf tracks, chiefly along the river banks, where mice are apt to be, but heard 
no wolves at night The next year, 1905, was the culminating year 
of the mice. Sometimes two at a time could be seen in the daylight. Low twigs 
and all small growth were riddled by them. There was a tattered aspect about 
the moss and ground in many places not quite pleasant to see. .... Falcons 
had increased visibly Owls were not many, but had increased some- 
what; we saw only one snowy owl. All trout of more than half a pound had mice 
inside. Ptarmigan were very plenty, and the wolves — we may have seen the 
tracks of two hundred — were silent still. The bear of the trip was full of mice. 
. . . . Caribou were still scarce even on George River, and foxes plenty. 
In the spring of 1906 the mice disappeared with the snow With the 
• vanishing of the mice the change in the visible life of the country was remark- 
able. The falcon cliffs were deserted, coast and inland We felt the 
absence of their superb flights and cries. In the trout reaches of the Assiwaban 
fish were numerous, but they were living on flies now, with what minnows they 
could get, and were no longer mousey but sweet and good. No owls appeared; 
