SOURCE OF ST. PETEr's RIVER. 1 87 



Iiausted ; no game of any consequence could be seen ; the 

 only animals we obtained were a small hare, a pheasant, 

 and half a dozen of red squirrels. With a view to accus- 

 tom ourselves to the food which must probably soon be- 

 come our sole dependance, as well as to spare our provi- 

 sions, we collected some of the lichen which grows upon 

 the rocks, and which is designated by the name of "tripe 

 de roche ;" when absolutely destitute of provisions, the 

 Indians sometimes resort to this for food, and the voyagers 

 are also compelled to use it in some cases. One qi the 

 clerks at Rainy Lake Fort, Mr. Weeks, informed us that 

 he had seen Captain Franklin, on his return from the Polar 

 Sea, when that enterprising officer and his party, very 

 much reduced in number by privations of all kinds, had 

 been obliged to support themselves for thirty-one days, 

 without meat, merely upon the tripe de roche, and the 

 bones and pieces of leather which they could pick up at 

 old camps. Although we were not quite so destitute as 

 Captain Franklin, yet we made two meals upon the rock 

 tripe, and they stand recorded in our recollections as the 

 most unpalatable of which we have ever partaken. The 

 moss is collected, and boiled in water, when, if young and 

 tender, it resolves itself into a thin jelly ; we were not well 

 skilled in the selection of the moss, so that, instead of tak- 

 ing the tender and delicate, we took large pieces which, hav- 

 ing probably undergone a change in their properties oc- 

 casioned by age, did not resolve themselves completely in 

 jelly, but left a black matter floating in the liquid, and im- 

 parting to it as unsightly an appearance as its taste was 

 disagreeable ; we endeavoured by red and black pepper to 

 render it tolerable, but all in vain. When all travellers, in 

 those northern regions, have been exposed to the most se- 

 vere privations, we would find but little grace in complain- 



