308 GASTRONOMY. 



supplied us with a treat for a few Sundays, but on 

 their expenditure we had to turn to the hmpid waters 

 of Bear Lake to quench thust ; and though they were 

 pure as seraph's tears, and bright as the eyes of 

 lovehness, we had fair experience of the truthful 

 adage, " too much of a good thing," &c. As may be 

 supposed fish and water did not materially conduce 

 to an increase of health or endurance; our complexions 

 became colom-less and transparent, and the tone of 

 the digestive organs weakened ; one or two of us 

 were frequently at or directly after a meal seized with 

 an involuntary nausea, the stomach peremptorily 

 rejecting the offered aliment. There was only one, 

 even distant, substitute for the beverages we had 

 ever been accustomed to ; this was made by boiling 

 the plant called Swamp tea, which grows plentifully 

 throughout North America — leaves, stalks, and all — 

 in water, and drinking the infusion ; it has a strong 

 bitter taste, liked by few, but it is, I believe, a fine 

 tonic, and I tried to fancy I liked it, possibly because 

 there was nothing else. 



I have purposely avoided in my narrative all 

 scientific details ; and have, therefore, hitherto left 

 unnoticed the frequent occiKrence of the Aurora 

 Borealis, the most gorgeous as well as most wonderful 

 of northern, and perhaps of any other phenomena : 



