434 
THE STORY OF THE RABBIT, 
a plague,. for they devoured the grass, which was needed for the sheep, 
the bark of trees, and every kind of fruit and vegetables, until the prospect 
of the colony became a very serious matter, and ruin seemed inevitable. 
In New South Wales upwards of fifteen million rabbit skins have been 
exported in a single year; while in the thirteen years ending with 1899 no 
less than thirty-nine millions were accounted for in Victoria alone. To 
prevent the increase of these rodents, the introduction of weasels, stoats, 
mungooses, etc., has been tried; but it has been found that these carnivores 
neglected the rabbits and took to feeding on poultry, and thus became as 
great a nuisance as the animals they were intended to destroy. The attempt 
to kill them off by the introduction of an epidemic disease has also failed. 
In order to protect such portions of the country as are still free from rabbits 
fences of wire-netting have been erected; one of these fences erected by 
the Government of Victoria extending for a distance of upwards of one 
hundred and fifty geographical miles. 
