Arrowhead, Squaw's Toes, and Other Things 129 



halls of the nobles, the floors were often covered on feast 

 days with rushes mixed with flowers and sweet-scented 

 herbs, the delio-fitfulness of which was sometimes marred bv 

 the failure to remove them until they were foul with the 

 accumulated rubbish which had dropped from the tables. 



Gilbert White, who wrote The Natural History of Sel- 

 borne in the last quarter of the eighteenth century, reports 

 the use by the residents of his district of rushes for candles. 

 They strip the rushes of all but one or two ribs of surface 

 material which gives strength and prevents too-rapid burn- 

 ing. They bleach them next, after which they are dropped 

 into hot fat or grease. Rushes so prepared give a good clear 

 light and a piece a little more than two feet long will burn 

 an hour. He also mentions the use of a well-combed moss 

 which he says "is very proper for the dusting of beds, cur- 

 tains, carpets, hangings, etc." 



As time passed I became acquainted with many interesting 

 facts. The first specific mention of marshes in the Pacific 

 Northwest was made in 1792 by Archibald Menzies in his 

 journal. While he was on the north shore of one of the San 

 Juan Islands, he met Indians who were gathering marsh ma- 

 terials for winter use. The passage reads as follows : ". . . we 

 passed a low extensive Morass well cropd with Bullrushes 

 of which large patches had been plucked by the Natives & 

 were now laid neatly out upon the Beach to season them 

 for making their Mats. . . ." These mats were woven during 

 spare times in the winter and were made for a wide variety 

 of uses. 



I found that Fort Nisqually, one of the early Hudson's 

 Bay Company trading posts, had been built close to low and 

 marshy country at the mouth of the Nisqually River about 

 fifty miles from Seattle. The company journal was detailed 

 enough to specify any marsh products if they were being 

 used, but all I could find mention of was the cutting of 

 nearby trees for firewood, spars, and building material, the 



