30 BERTHA'S VISIT TO HER 



" But still, uncle," said I, " useful as that 

 same moss is, you cannot consider it among the 

 vegetable productions on which man can live. 

 It supports the rein -deer, and the rein-deer sus- 

 tains man but man could not live on moss or 

 lichen." 



" There is a common saying, my little Bertha," 

 replied he, et that one-half of the world knows 

 not how the other half live. Now, there is a 

 certain lichen called Iceland-moss which is 

 brought to England as a medicine, and which 

 no one would suppose could be used as food ; 

 yet it is a fact that, in those northern regions 

 of which we are speaking, immense quantities of 

 it are gathered for home consumption as an ar- 

 ticle of common food. When the bitter quality 

 has been extracted by steeping in water, the 

 lichen is dried and reduced to a powder, and then 

 made into a cake, with the addition of a little 

 meal ; or else boiled and eaten with milk and it 

 is eaten with thankfulness too, my dear Bertha, 

 by the poor natives, in years of scarcity, who say 

 that a bountiful Providence sends them bread 

 out of the very stones. 



" I might also mention the tripe de roche, on 

 which Captain Franklin and his unfortunate 

 companions were reduced to live ; but my object 

 was, I believe, to shew, not how many mosses 

 or lichens might be eaten, but that every country 



