Newjer/ty, Raccoon. ioi 



wife ate them ; and the old men among 

 them told me, they liked this food better 

 than any of the other plants which the In- 

 dians formerly made ufe of. This Taw-liee 

 was the Oronthim aquaticum. 



Bilberries were likewife a very com- 

 mon difh among the Indians. They are 

 called Huckleberries by the Engli/h here, and 

 belong to feveral fpecies of Vaccinium, which 

 are all of them different from our Swedifb 

 Bilberry-bufh, though their berries, in re- 

 gard to colour, fhape, and tafte, are fo fimi- 

 for to the Swedifi bilberry, that they are 

 diftinguimed from each other with diffi- 

 culty. The American ones grow on fhrubs, 

 which are from two to four feet high ; and 

 there are fome fpecies which are above feven 

 feet in height. The Indians formerly pluck- 

 ed them in abundance every year, dried 

 them either in the fun-mine or by the fire- 

 iide, and afterwards prepared them for eat- 

 ing, in different manner?. Thefe huckle- 

 berries are flill a dainty di(h among the In- 

 dians. On my travels through the country 

 of the Iroquefe, they offered me, whenever 

 they defigned to treat me well, frem maize- 

 bread, baked in an oblong (hape, mixed with 

 dried Huckleberries, which lay as clofe in it 

 as the raifins in a plumb-pudding. I mall 

 G 3 writs 



