EDIBLE TUBERS, BULBS OR ROOTS 



Lewis and Clarke, in their narrative, speak of an 

 island in the Columbia Eiver, which they call Wap- 

 patoo Island, because of the numerous ponds in its 

 interior abounding in the Arrowhead plant, which 

 in the Indian language is termed Wappatoo. Those 

 doughty explorers have given a picturesque descrip- 

 tion of the aboriginal Arrowhead business in the 

 Columbia River country of Oregon as it was a 

 century ago, "The bulb," to quote from their Nar- 

 rative, "is a great article of food and almost the 

 staple of commerce on the Columbia. ... It is col- 

 lected by the women, who employ for the purpose 

 canoes . . . sufficient to contain a single person and 

 several bushels of roots, yet so very light a woman 

 can carry them with ease. She takes one of these 

 canoes into a pond where the water is as high as 

 the breast, and by means of her toes separates from 

 the root the bulb which on being freed from the mud 

 rises immediately to the surface of the water and is 

 thrown into the canoe." Eoasted or boiled, the 

 tubers become soft, palatable and digestible, and to 

 travelers in the wild make a fairly good substitute 

 for bread. 



Also as bread upon the waters is that majestic 

 aquatic, native to quiet streams and ponds of the in- 

 terior United States from the Great Lakes to the 



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