BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 217 
the cutting down of which must, from their enormous size, have 
been attended with prodigious labour. We were at a loss to ac- 
count for this expenditure of toil, as the trunks had not obstructed 
the track ; but we afterwards learned, from the Indians, that their 
object was to strip from the branches a Moss, having the appear- 
ance of horse-hair (probably the Lichen, Alectoria jubata), which 
they use as food. By boiling it for three days and nights, this 
moss is reduced to a white and tasteless pulp ; and in that state it 
is eaten with the Kammas, a root somewhat like an Onion. To the 
unsavoury mess is sometimes added an insipid, or rather nauseous 
cake, made of Hips and Haws. Such is the principal, if not the 
only, sustenance of these (the Pende Oreille) Indians at the present 
season (July). 
“The Kammas (Camassia esculenta, Lindl.) deserves a more 
particular notice, though, unlike an Onion, it has little or no 
flavour. It grows in swampy ground, and when its blue flower 
has produced seed, the root is dug up by the women with a stick 
about two feet long and a handle across the top, and is thrown 
into the basket slung at their backs. As the plant is abundant, 
each poor creature generally collects about a peck a day. The 
Kammas is placed over a gentle fire, in the open air, and it fer- 
ments, after about two days and nights, into a black substance, 
having somewhat the flavour of Liquorice. After being pounded 
in a trough, this stuff is formed into cakes, which, when thoroughly 
baked, are stowed away in baskets for winter-stock. After all this 
preparation, the Kammas is but a poor and nauseous article of diet. 
These people, (the Pende Oreille and Kootonais Indians,) may soon, 
however, have something much better. In one of their lodges 
we were surprised to observe several baskets of Potatoes, and they 
showed us two patches of ground where these had been produced. 
The seed and implements had been supplied from Fort Colville. 
“On the banks of the Walla-walla river, the dreary plains of sand 
which stretch for miles, presenting in autumn no vegetation but 
Wormwood and Prickly Pear, nor inhabitants but the Rattle-snake 
and Prairie-bird, are said to be clothed in spring with fine ver- 
dure, which the improvident Snake-Indians, as if expressly to 
