The Aftermath of a Cltib Outing. i6i 



place implicit reliance upon the "internodes" (the spaces 

 between the recurring whorls of branches) as an infallible 

 guide indicating annual growth, as he may securely do 

 with the rings which accurately record the season's flow 

 of sap and increase in size. These whorls of branches 

 are very handsome, particularly in the fir trees, and I 

 have often thought that a young fir tree cut in sections 

 so as to preserve them uninjured would make charming 

 decoration for the walls of a festive hall, in form resem- 

 bling splendid great green snowflakes, becoming more 

 complex from the top to the bottom of the tree as the 

 branches are amplified in subdivision. 



"Sarvis'' bushes grew in the vicinity of the river, by 

 their presence almost as much a reminder of the Indians 

 as obsidian chippings. The berries of these bushes once 

 afforded wholesome food over a vast area, — in the Rocky 

 Mountains, in the Sierra and far north into Canada. In 

 the dried state they were one of the ingredients of 

 pemmican, the standby and chief sustenance of man in 

 his subarctic sledge journeys; these, mixed with pounded 

 meat and the melted tallow of buffalo, elk, or deer, con- 

 stituted that famous compound which was unrivaled for 

 concentrated energy. Then, from the service bush was 

 procured the elastic and stubborn wood, charged with 

 just the right sort of resilience, from which the most 

 powerful bows were made. This was procured only after 

 keen and intelligent search, such as an Indian alone is 

 capable of. the despair of a white man, who, among the 

 tangle of crooked branches, would be unable to find a 

 pair of exactly the proper shape and thickness in a week 

 of Sundays. The Indian bow, when completed, was often 

 composed of two tapering pieces, bound together with 

 deer sinew, in its two halves mainly conformed by nature 

 to the use of man. A bush which might stand as a symbol 

 of the undegenerate days when firearms, and the equally 

 murderous fire-w^ater, were unknown. 



Here we got our first glimpse of T\It. Brewer, not 

 seeming very high, as one always finds to be the case 



