136 JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 
hood.. A decoction of its inner bark is used as 
an emetic by the Indians, who also extract from 
it a yellow dye. A great variety of willows occur 
on the banks of the streams; and the hazel is met 
with sparingly in the woods. The sugar maple, 
elm, ash, and the arbor vite *, termed by the Ca- 
nadian voyagers cedar, grow on various parts of 
the Saskatchawan ; but that river seems to form 
their northem boundary. Two kinds of prunus 
also grow here, one of whicht, a handsome small 
tree, produces a black fruit, having a very astrin- 
gent taste, whence the term choke-cherry applied 
to it. The Crees call it tawquoy-meena, and 
esteem it to be when dried and bruised, a good 
addition to pemmican. The other species t is a 
less elegant shrub, but is said to bear a bright 
red cherry, of a pleasant sweet taste. Its Cree 
name 1s passée-awey-meenan, and it is known to 
occur as far north as Great Slave Lake. 
The most esteemed fruit of the country, however, 
is the produce .of the aFonia ovalis. Under the 
hame of meesasscootoomeena it is a favourite dish 
at most of the Indian feasts, and mixed with pem- 
mican, it renders that greasy food actually palat- 
able. A great variety of currants and gooseberries- 
are also mentioned by the natives, under the name 
m 
eas 
* Pranus Virginiana. 
<= ©" $ Prunus Pensylvanica, 
