136 Union Bay 



so heavily timbered as the Puget Sound region once was 

 could have been looked to by the Indians for their food 

 products. The forests stretched almost everywhere. Meadows, 

 except in the higher reaches of the mountains, were not com- 

 mon. Little food of value grew in the dense timberland. It 

 was the open park country, the few meadows, and the 

 marshes which furnished the bulk of the native food require- 

 ments. When other food could not be secured the roots of 

 the lady-fern and the bracken were cooked and served with 

 salmon eggs and provided a palatable dish. Even the horse- 

 tail was eaten in emergencies. Some species of wild onion 

 were esteemed and sought. The nettle, much- used for food 

 in Europe, does not appear to have been used as a food by 

 our native tribes, although Dr. Gunther reports its uses as 

 string for duck nets, as a rubbing material to keep seal hunt- 

 ers awake, and as a treatment for rheumatism. 



Self-evident is the use of the berries of the marsh. The 

 Indians ate them all: the cranberries from the bogs, the elder- 

 berries on the margins, the blackberries which hang over 

 the banks in long hedges. I know how easily the blackberries 

 are gathered, for many times in late August, with a leather 

 glove on one hand to hold the canoe close to the prickly 

 vines, I have picked quarts of plump and dust-free fruit— the 

 most comfortable berry picking I have ever known. 



There were few of the plants I investigated about the 

 marsh which were not used by the Indians for some purpose: 

 food, medicine, material, charms, or ceremony. A common 

 shrub like spirea seems valueless but Dr. Gunther reports its 

 use by the Quinault Indians who peel its smaller stems and 

 make a string to hold clams for roasting. Perhaps that was 

 the way the Indians had strung the dried clams which Cap- 

 tain Vancouver had noticed hanging on their persons like 

 necklaces and from which, when hungry, they removed and 

 ate as many as they desired. Edible necklaces, a device 



