A LOCAL SUBSTITUTE FOR TOBACCO. 305 
racemosus), and the bearberry (Arctostaphylos 
uva-urst). 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 kini-kinick; the leaves being dried 
over the fire, and rubbed up in the hand to 
powder, and smoked in a pipe. The wild 
roseberries (Ltosa 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 larve 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 
