220 PEABLS AND PEBBLES. 



This grass, with the quills of the porcupine (which the 

 squaws dye), moose-hair, the bark of the silver or white 

 birch and the inner bark of various other trees — bass, 

 cedar, oak and beech — from which they make the 

 coarser baskets, are the only stock-in-trade now left' to 

 the poor Indians. 



The soil in which the Indian grass grows is for the 

 most part light, sandy, low ground, near water, so the 

 Indians tell me ; but it is also found in prairie lands, 

 where it is very beautiful, the husk or plume being of 

 a purplish color and very bright and shining. Under 

 cultivation it is very shy of blossoming, but the leaf 

 attains to a great length. In my own garden it grows 

 most luxuriantly, the blade often measuring nearly three 

 feet. 



It breaks the ground early in the spring, before any 

 other grass has begun to show itself on the lawn. Like 

 the spear-grass it has a running root, pointed and sharp, 

 to pierce the moist soil, and is hardy, remaining green 

 and bright in cold or in summer drought. It does not 

 give out its perfume until a few hours after it has been 

 cut. One of its useful qualities lies in its toughness — it 

 will not break when being twisted or braided, and can 

 even be knotted or tied — and it is this elasticity which 

 enables the Indian women to make it so available in 

 their manufactures. 



I have myself used it, making it into table mats, and 

 find it pretty and useful for that purpose. I used to 



