328 The Book of Woodcraft 



put to this final resort and recorded afterward that "the 

 holes tasted the best." 



But the hardest case of all is the best for present dis- 

 cussion. That is the case of the man who has not happened 

 on a rabbit region and who has neither gun nor axe, string 

 nor rawhide. He must look entirely to the vegetable world 

 for sustenance, as do all the northern natives in times of 

 direst famine. 



Bark and buds. In the forest region are several foods 

 that are available in the depth of winter. First of these is 

 the thin green outer skin or bark, the white innermost bark, 

 and the buds (not the middle brown bark) of quaking asp 

 or white poplar. The brown bark is highly charged with 

 a bitter principle, partly tannin, that makes it unpalatable 

 as well as unwholesome. Aspen bark is a favorite food 

 with elk, deer, beavers, squirrels, rabbits, and mice in 

 winter. I found that by boiling it for some hours it is 

 reduced to a gelatinous and apparently nutritious mass. I 

 have also found the buds of basswood a palatable food 

 supply. In my early days, in the backwood of Canada, we 

 children frequently allayed our hunger with basswood buds 

 and spruce and tamarac shoots. 



Dr. C. C. Curtis informs me that in British Columbia the 

 natives eat the inner bark of willows, hemlock, and other 

 trees, and I have often heard of the Indians eating the 

 innermost bark of birch. 



All these are common foods with herbivorous animals. 

 Man, having a less capable stomach, will do well to pre- 

 digest such by roasting or long boiling. 



Toadstools. There is yet another supply that is commonly 

 shunned, namely — toadstools. No toadstool growing on 

 trees is known to be poisonous, and most contain nutriment 

 — especially the birch polyporus, which grows on birch 

 trees and has pores instead of gills. A toadstool gnawed 



