336 AVOYAGETO 



«7-9- plant grows wild, and in confulerable abundance : the wo- 



Oflobcr. r . 



men are employed in collecting the roots at the beginning 

 of Auguft, which are afterward dried in the fun, and then 

 laid up for ufe. On our fecond arrival, this harveft was juft 

 over, and had fallen much fhort of its ufual produce. It is 

 a common obfervation, amongft the Kamtfchadales, that 

 the bounty of Providence never fails them, for that fuch 

 feafons as are moft hurtful to the farana, are always the moll 

 favourable for fiftiing ; and that, on the contrary, a bad 

 fifhing month is always made up by the exuberance of the 

 farana harveft. It is ufed in cookery in various ways. 

 When roafted in embers, it fupplies the place of bread, bet- 

 ter than any thing the country affords. After being baked 

 in an oven, and pounded, it becomes an excellent fubftitute 

 for flour and meal of every fort, and in this form is mixed 

 in all their foups, and moft of their other dimes. It is 

 efteemed extremely nourishing ; has a pleafant bitter tafte, 

 and may be eaten every day without cloying. We ufed to 

 boil thefe roots, and eat them as potatoes, either alone, or 

 with our meat, and found them very wholefomc and plea- 

 fant. It has been already mentioned, that this ufeful plant 

 grows alfo at Oonalafhka, where the roots of it are ufed, 

 and conllitute a considerable part of their food, in like man- 

 ner as in Kamtfchatka. 



The other plant alluded to is called the fiveet grq/s; the 

 botanical defcription is Herac/eum Siberieumfoliis pinnatis, fc/io/is 

 qmnis, inter me Jus fejjdibus^ corolluls unifonnil'us. Hort. Upfal. 65. 

 The time, I took particular notice of it, was in May, when 

 it was about a foot and a half high, had much the appear- 

 ance of fedgc, and was covered with a white down, orduft, 

 w!*ich looked exceedingly like the hoar-froft hanging upon 



if, 



