LICHEN-rLOEA OI' XOETHERN KUUOPE. 413 



must thus depend mainly on its liclicnine or starch. Its dcmul- ■ 

 cent material is considerable; but its bitter (tonic) and its purely 

 nutrient (nitrogenous) material are insignificant. The lichcniue 

 IS easily extracted by boiling in water or milk, forming on cooling 

 a firm jelly, similar to that yielded by ^'carrageen," or "Irish 

 moss" {Chondrus crispits^ Lyngb., N. 0. Algce). 



A similar jelly-forming starch, conjoined unfortunately with a 

 similar purgative and nauseous bitter, is contained in the Umbili- 

 caricey the " Tripe de roche " of Arctic voyagers. Various of the 

 commoner species of the genus Umhilicaria are employed like 

 Cetraria IsJandica to yield an edible jelly, and are also ground into 

 a black meal or flour as an ingredient of bread in times of famine, 

 m Arctic parts both of Europe and America. The Canadian 

 hunters have long used the " Tripe de roche," in some form, as an 

 article of food. To the readers of narratives of arctic adventure* 

 its name is only too familiar as having over and over again formcd^ 

 the sole food of the intrepid traveller. 



In British Columbia, "when all other food fails, tlie natives 

 make shift with a species of lichen which is found in abundance 

 on the sides of the rock"t. This is probably some species of 

 Umhilicaria. But in the same country another' lichen, a cortico- 

 lous one, the common wide-spread Alectoria Jubata, seems an even 

 more familiar article of food. Commander Mayne describes it as 

 "one of the most important articles of food " of the native In- 

 <lian3. It grows abundantly about Kamloops on pine trees. In 

 preparing it for use, the Indians carefully clear away all the frag- 

 "leats of bark, or twig, with which it is collected or intermixed; 

 they then steep it in water till it is quite soft (or flaccid), then 

 Wi'ap it up in grass and leaves to prevent iU being burnt, and 

 cook it between hot stones, as savages in aU parts of the world 

 are, or have been, in the habit of cooking food. They also boil it 

 and press it into cakes 3-4 inches thick, which look like ginger- 

 bread J. The taste of these cakes is represented, doubtless most 

 truthfully, as "very earthy and rather bitter."..." Our companion 



* ^^de the Xarratives by Sir John Franklin and Sir John Eichard.on, anc 

 Lieutenants Back and Wood, of their Expedition down the Coppermine Kivei 

 la -iretic America in 1819-20. 



"•■ Cariboo Goldfields, hy W. C. HazHtt, (London, 1862) p. iO. 



o^ ii,:. J ■ .• :^u ii.„i. „r *u««T;^iion-KrPfld" of Scandinavia 



X Com 



Clad on 



P^haps of Aleciorla, liver nia, &c. are ingredients, 

 p. 411). 



