290 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 



serpentine course, into many indentations, which contain on 

 each side a series of lakes, reflecting the towering Green 

 mountains, whose bases they often reach, and harbour im- 

 mense numbers of water-fowl, especially geese and ducks. 

 In one place one observes the Indian, in his light frail canoe 

 of Thuja bark, paddling noiselessly along to surprise the 

 fowl behind the rushes ; in another he is fishing with nets 

 made of the twisted branches of the Cornus ; or is busy in 

 building canoes ; gathering rushes for mats, &c. On the 

 teeming meadows, graze or gambol herds of horses ; children 

 bathe in the river, or carry wood or roots to their humble 

 homes, the smoke of which is seen circling over the tops of 

 the gigantic pines. In short, it is as complete a picture of 

 pristine nature as can be beheld under a northern, sky. 



These lakes are either permanent, filled with Nuphar 

 advena, Menyanthes, Typha and rushes ; or, they dry up to 

 swamps in the summer months ; in the latter case they bear 

 Phragmites communis and Alismacea, their stony shores 

 bordered and ornamented with Clintonia, Calliopsis Atkin- 

 soniana, species of Allium, Nasturtium, Claytonia, Carda- 

 mine, Lythrum, &c. Deeper inside are large tufts ot Cartces, 

 groups of Typha, so useful for the Indians who use the 

 blades for making mats; with it also grows Calamus, the 

 roots of which the Indians use but little. But on the borders 

 of willow- shrubbery grows the Scirpus maritimus? for whose 

 tubers the Indians dig every autumn as if for potatoes, which 

 they also cultivate.* The former have somewhat of a pear- 



* The Skitsoe Indians, about ten or fifteen years ago, got possession of 

 some potatoes from some of the fur traders, which they since have culti- 

 vated in their own way, and brought to a remarkable degree of perfec- 

 tion. This may perhaps serve to show how much depends, in the potatoe 

 as in every sort of vegetable, on the selection of seeds or sets. During 

 my stay with the Skitsoes, in November 1843, the chief used to wa'k 

 about every morning, two or three hours before daybreak, in the woods, 

 where the Indians had built their lodges, singing out in a loud voice the 

 orders for the day ; amongst others he repeated every morning : " E at l " e 

 small potatoes, save the big ones for planting !" This hiB people did 

 for a long period. The size of their potatoes (English white) was not so 



