MUSHROOMS. 
303 
side on the lake shore bathed in the tints of the rainbow, the col- 
ors lying with unusual breadth on its wooded breast. Even the 
ethereal green of the bow was clearly seen above the darker ver- 
dure of the trees. Only the lower part of the bow, that which 
lay upon the mountain, was colored ; above, the clouds were just 
tinged where they touched the brow of the hill, then fading away 
into pale gray. 
Ice at table still We Americans probably vise far more ice 
than most people ; the water for drinking is regularly iced, in 
many houses, until late in the autumn, when the frost cools the 
springs for us out of doors. 
Friday, 22d. — Mushrooms are springing up by the road-side 
and in pasture-grounds ; are not so numerous as last year, 
however, when the fungus tribe abounded. Mushrooms are not 
much eaten in our country neighborhood ; people are afraid of 
them, and perhaps they are right. Certainl}^, they should never 
be eaten unless gathered by a person who understands them thor- 
oughly. In France, they are not allowed to be offered for sale, I 
believe, until inspected by an officer appointed for the purpose. 
There is a good old Irish mother who supplies one or two houses 
in the village when they are in season, and she understands them 
very well. 
The Indians of this part of the continent ate mushrooms. Poor 
creatures, they were often reduced to great extremities for food, 
from their want of forethought, feeding upon lichens, tripe de 
roche, and everything edible which grew in the forest. But 
mushrooms seem to have been considered by them as a great 
delicacy. A Chippewa, when speaking with Major Long on the 
subject of a future life, gave the following account of the opinions 
