194: THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. VU. 



The staple articles of food ia general use by voyageurs, and 

 hunters and travellers in the North West, are p«inmican, flour, 

 tea and sugar. PersoDS, like ourselves, starting from civilized 

 life, generally provide themselves in addition with a moderate 

 supply of pork, ham, or bacon, and a few other luxuries, and for 

 some days, especially when prairie chickens or ducks are abundant, 

 look with disdain, not to say disgust, upon the richot and ruhei- 

 boo. After a few weeks, however, the feeling wears off, and 

 pemmican, richot and rubeiboo, varied by dried buffalo meat, 

 boiled, are eaten not only without a murmur but with keen appe- 

 tite, at breakfast, dinner and supper ; and I have even seen these 

 dishes selected in preference to roast duck or prairie chicken or 

 fried pork, ham or bacon, by persons who, on starting, declared 

 that nothing short of absolute starvation would ever induce them 

 to make a meal on pemmican. 



Captain Butler, who was evidently not an admirer of pemmican, 

 thus describes it: "Pemmican, the favorite food of the Indian 

 and the half-breed voyageur, can be made from the flesh of any 

 animal, but it is nearly altogether composed of buffalo meat: the 

 meat is first cut into slices, then dried either by fire or in the sun, 

 and then pounded or beaten out into a thick flaky substance ; in 

 this state it is put into a large bag made from the hide of the 

 animal, the dry pulp being soldered down into a hard, solid 

 mass, by melted fat being poured over it — the quantity of fat is 

 nearly half the total weight, forty pounds of fat going to fifty 

 pounds of ' beat meat ' ; the best pemmican generally has added 

 to it ten pounds of berries and sugar, the whole composition 

 forming the most solid description of food that man can make. 

 If any person should feel inclined to ask, ' ^Yhat does jDcmmican 

 taste like?' I can only reply 'Like pemmican.' There is 

 nothing; else in the world that bears to it the slightest resem- 

 blance. Can I say anything that will give an idea of its sufficing 

 quaHty? yes, I think I can. A dog that will eat from four to 

 six pounds of raw fish a day when sleighing, will only devour 

 two pounds of pemmican, if he be fed upon that food ; yet I 

 have seen Indians and half-breeds eat four pounds of it in a 

 single day. Pemmican can be prepared in many ways, and it is 

 not easy to decide which method is the least objectionable. There 

 is rubeiboo and richot, and pemmican plain and pemmican raw, 

 this last method being the one most in vogue amongst voyageurs^ 

 but the richot, to me, seemed the best ; mixed with a little flour 



