302 DK. LINDSAY ON THE LICHEN-FLORA OF GREENLAND. 



*' was, however, less tlian that which we felt from hunger 



" Weak from fasting, and their garments stiffened with the frost, 

 *< after packing their frozen tents and bed-clothes, the poor tra- 



" vellers again set out on the 7th After feeding almost 



** exclusively on several species of Gyrophora (= Umbilicana), a 

 " Lichen known as * Tripe de roche,' which scarcely allayed the 

 " pangs of hunger, on the 20th they got a good meal by killing a 



" Musk-ox On the 17th they managed to allay the pangs 



'^ of hunger by eating pieces of singed hide and a little ' Tripe 

 " de roche.' This and some Mosses, with an occasional solitary 

 " Partridge, formed their invariable food ; on very many days 

 " even this scanty supply could not be obtained, and their appe- 



*^ tites became ravenous Mr. Hood was also reduced to a 



" perfect shadow from the severe bowel-complaint which the 



*' * Tripe de roche ' never failed to give him Not being 



*^ able to find any ' Tripe de roche,' they drank an infusion of the 

 " * Labrador tea-plant' (^Ledum palustre, v. decumbens), and ate 

 ** a few morsels of burnt leather for supper. This continued to 

 ** be a frequent occurrence." * 



Horace Marryat, in his " One Year in Sweden," f writes, 

 " We now tread under foot what has served as food for men, 

 " baked into bread, and that right often in Sweden," referring, 

 probably, to Clado7iia rangiferina, for he mentions Cetraria Is- 

 landica separately. *' The peasants are ready prepared for famine. 

 *^ . . . , In an old book are printed as many as 13 receipts for 

 " what is termed ' Weed-bread,' commencing with Bark" Iceland- 

 moss-bread, or Lichen-bread, is only one kind. Among others there 

 are bone, grass, straw, sorrel, bran, and furze breads ! The sub- 

 stances which give the bread its name are, in these cases, probably 

 only the chief ingredients as to bulk. Consul Campbell, in his 

 report to the British Government on the trade of Finland for the 

 year 1867, alluding to the famine of that year in that country, 

 says, *^ The bread given to support life is composed of pease- 

 *' straw, combined with Iceland-moss and a small proportion of 

 '' flour." 



The '^ Old Bushman," in his " Spring and Summer in Lap- 

 land," { writes, " That the Reindeer thrive [on CI. rangiferina], 

 " is proved by the fact that no park-fed Deer in England can look 

 " fatter and sleeker than the Reindeer when they come down 

 " from the fells at the end of summer ; in fact, ' fat as a Rein- 

 " deer,' is a common saying here." It would even appear to be 

 occasionally too rich a fodder. The hair of the animal becomes 

 frequently very brittle ; it snaps across as if rotten, and falls 

 readily from the skin. This condition is ascribed to its feeding 

 too much on " dry moss " (p. 220). That CL rangiferina contains 

 a considerable percentage of starchy matter is shown by the fact 

 that quite recently a Swedish chemist has obtained alcohol from 



* Extracts from the narrative of Franklin's First Land Expedition (1819- 

 21), in Simmonds' " Sir John Franklin and the Arctic Kegions." 

 t London, 1862, vol. i, p. 231, describing the Falls of Trollhattan. 

 % Loudon, 1864, p. 173. 



