44 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



In a great number of localities service-berries are stored for winter 

 use by the Indians. They are gathered where most abundant, crushed 

 and made into a paste which is spread out on bark or stones in the 

 sun until it is thoroughly dried. It is then put in sacks, and during 

 the winter serves to give variety to their diet which, otherwise consists 

 of flesh or dried fish. 



HucMcherries. — As formerly among the Eastern Indians, so now 

 among those of the Far West the huckleberry is not only a luxury but 

 almost a necessity. The species in the two districts are not the same : 

 in the East the high and low blueberries ( Vacciniuni corymhosum 

 and T^ Pen7isylvanicum), and the black huckleberry ( Gaylussacia resi- 

 nosa), are the most useful kinds. In the West are many species, but 

 only two which have economic importance. Of these, one is small, 

 and resembles our V. Pennsylvanicum, but has a berry covered with 

 bloom of a very pronounced blue color ; the juice is very red and 

 somewhat acid. This covers glades on the slopes of the Cascade 

 Mountains, Oregon, and the fruit is so abundant as to give a bluish 

 color to the whole suface ; this 1 suppose to be Y. occidentalis of 

 Gray. Another species, w^hich does not correspond to any description 

 yet written, but may be a form of V. MyrtiUus, surpasses in the excel- 

 lence and abundance of its fruit any other huckleberry of which I 

 have knowledge. It covers great areas on the flanks of the Cascade 

 Mountains, in Oregon, where the forest has been burned off ; growing 

 two to four feet in height, and standing close on the ground ; some- 

 times really bending under its load of berries. These are round, half 

 an inch in diameter, of light wine-color, and of a delicious vinous 

 flavor. So abundant is this fruit that, sitting down in a clump of these 

 bushes, I have filled a quart cup without changing my position. The 

 Indians make long journeys to the localities where these berries are 

 most abundant and gather and dry them for winter use. The drying 

 is rapidly effected by burning one of the great fir-trees which, killed by 

 fire, have been subsequently prostrated by the wind and now lie thick- 

 ly strewed over the open surfaces where the berries grow. When this 

 is well burned and affords a steady heat, flat stones, if they can be 

 found, are covered with crushed berries and set up before the fire 

 where the drying is soon effected. 



Several other berries that abound in the country bordering the 

 Columbia are gathered and stored much in the same way. Of these, 

 that which after the huckleberries and service-berries is most used is 

 the salal ( Gaidtheria shallon). This plant is as unlike our Eastern 

 wintergreen {C. procianbens), or the closely allied but acaulescent 

 species of Oregon (C. myrsinites), as can well be imagined. It is a 

 decumbent shrub, of which the stem is one to two feet long, the large 

 ovate alternate leaves so thickly set as almost to touch their edges, 

 and hanging below are a considerable number of black, pedunculate 

 berries, growing in the axils of the leaves. These are larger and 



