A LOCAL SUBSTITUTE FOR TOBACCO. 305 



racemosus\ and the bearberry (Arctostaphylos 

 uva-ursi}. The leaves of this latter plant are 

 used to a great extent, both by Indians and 

 traders, to mix with or use instead of tobacco, 

 and called Jdni-Jdnick] the leaves being dried 

 over the fire, and rubbed up in the hand to 

 powder, and smoked in a pipe. The wild 

 roseberries (Rosa blanda and Rosa mirantha), 

 and many others, usually designated huckle- 

 berries, constitute the food generally consumed 

 by these birds during summer and autumn ; 

 although I have often found quantities of wheat- 

 grains and larvaB of insects, grass-seeds, and 

 small wild flowers in their crops. Their thickly- 

 feathered feet enable them to run upon the snow 

 with ease and celerity, and they dig holes and 

 burrow underneath it much after the fashion of 

 the ptarmigan. 



During the two winters we spent at Colville, 

 flocks of these birds congregated about the corn- 

 stacks and hayricks at our mule-camp, and at 

 the Hudson's Bay trading-post, Fort Colville. 

 The temperature at that time was often down to 

 29 and 30 below zero, and the snow three feet 

 deep ; yet these birds did not at all appear to 

 suffer from such intense cold, and were strong, 

 wild, and fat during the entire winter, which 



VOL. I. x 



