262 SECOND JOURNEY TO THE 



parum), and the long succulent, and sweet 

 roots of many of the astragalea?, which 

 grow on the sandy shores, are eatable ; but 

 we did not learn that the Esquimaux were 

 acquainted with their use. A few clumps 

 of white spruce-fir, with some straggling 

 black spruces and canoe birches, grow at 

 the distance of twenty or thirty miles from 

 the sea, in sheltered situations, on the banks 

 of rivers." 



Captain Franklin has inserted a brief 

 account of a journey made into the Rocky 

 Mountains by Mr. Drummond, the assistant 

 botanist, which is extremely interesting, as 

 showing the hardships to which these " cul- 

 lers of simples" voluntarily expose them- 

 selves for the sake of adding one or two 

 new specimens of plants to the thirty or 

 forty thousand species already known. 

 Thus, in the midst of snow, and without a 

 tent, sheltered only from the inclemency of 

 the weather by a hut built of the branches 

 of trees, and depending for subsistence from 

 day to day on a solitary Indian hunter, " I 

 obtained," says the amiable and enthusiastic 



