Montreal. 295 



A fpecics of gentian. 



Wild vines are abundant in the woods 

 hereabouts, climbing up very high trees. 



I HAVE made enquiry among the French, 

 who travel far into the country, conce-n- 

 ning the food of the hdians. Thofe who 

 live far north, I am told, cannot plant any 

 thing, on account of the great degree of 

 cold. They have, therefore, no bread, and 

 do not live on vegetables; fle(h and fi{h is 

 their only food, and chiefly the flefli of bea- 

 vers, bears, rein-deer, elks, hares, and feve- 

 ral kinds of birds. Thofe Indlajis who live 

 far fouthward, eat the following things. Of 

 vegetables they plant mai^e, wild kidney 

 beans * of feveral kinds, pumpions of diffe- 

 rent forts, fquafhest a kind of gourds, water- 

 melons and melons f . All thefe plants have 

 been cultivated by the Indians, long before 

 the arrival of the Europeans. They like- 

 wife eat various fruits which grow in their 

 woods. Fifh and ilefh make a very great 

 part of their food. And they chiefly like 

 the fle(h of wild cattle, roe-bucks, ibgs, 

 bears, beavers, and fome other quadrupeds. 

 Among their dainty diflies, they reckon the 

 i^ater-taregrafsXi which the French call 



• Phafeoli, 



f Cucumis fnek, Linn. 



X Zizaniaaquatica, Linn. 



T 4 foi^<^ 



