WHOLESOME FOODS. 63 



be it man or beast, as the meanest kind of thing, 

 but I assure you the skunk (the four footed 

 one) is not to be despised or cast aside when 

 one is hungry or desires a change from the ever- 

 lasting bacon and biscuit. A skunk, shot and 

 prepared with care, makes very good eating. 



Two of the animals of our forest I never 

 could stomach and very few Indians eat them, 

 be they ever so much pushed for food, and these 

 are: the otter and mink. Their flesh is oily, 

 black and highly flavored, resembling the meat 

 of seal, only more so! The Indians as a rule 

 look down with contempt on a fellow Indian 

 who eats otter or mink, whether from necessity 

 or from an acquired and perverse taste. 



I venture to opine my little sketch will set 

 many of my hunter friends thinking and per- 

 haps make a few converts. You won't repent it. 



Forty years ago, before the country was 

 opened up to civilization and the usual provis- 

 ions of the white man were imported into the 

 wilds, the great staple foods of the territories, 

 from the Labrador Atlantic seaboard to the Pa- 

 cific, consisted of buffalo, caribou, white fish 

 and rabbits. According to the parts of the 

 country where these animals resorted, the In- 

 dians, traders and trappers, lived almost exclu- 



