VEGETABLE PRODUCTS USED BY NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 93 
palate, and mixed with leaves and dirt, For grinding the acorns a stone pestle 
and mortar is used.* The nuts of hazel ( Corylus Americana , Walt.) are also 
extensively gathered as food in some parts of the country where they are found. 
The fruit of the crab-apple ( Pyrulus rivularis , Dough) are prepared for food by 
being wrapped in leaves and preserved in bags all winter ; when they get sweet, 
they arecooked by digging a hole in the ground, covering it over thickly with green 
leaves, and a layer of earth or sand, and then kindling a fire above them. The 
fruit of the Cerasus mollis, Dough, is also eaten. All of the edible berries of the 
country are eagerly collected by the Indians, and either eaten fresh or preserved 
for winter use; indeed, the “berry sun” is a great season with them, and all 
throughout the lovely summer weather of North-west America, you ever now and 
again come upon parties of women and children, in the woods, engaged in this 
agreeable pursuit. Equally so is it with the frontier white women and children, 
who get up parties of this nature for days and even weeks together, into the 
mountains. I used to come across these marooning parties in my wanderings, 
and some of the pleasant remembrances I have of my wild north-western life, 
is the kindness I received from these little-polished but good-hearted people,— 
acts which I can never return, save by this general acknowledgment in a circle 
of my fellow-botanists, and I assure you I gladly embrace the opportunity of so 
doing.f Some of the berries, such as the strawberries ( Fragaria vesca, L., 
F. Virginiana, Ehr., and F. Cliilensis , Ehr.), will not admit of being dried, and 
are accordingly eaten fresh or brought down to the frontier settlements and 
towns and there sold to the whites. Nearly all of the others are dried and 
pressed into cakes for winter use. During the latter end of the summer and 
autumn, all around Indian villages, but chiefly on platforms and on the flat 
roofs of the houses, vast quantities of these berries may be seen drying and 
being superintended by some ancient hag, whose hands and arms are dyed 
pink with them. When required for use, they are boiled, and form an agree¬ 
able dessert to salmon, beaver, or venison diet. The berries thus treated are 
various species of Vaccinium,% Gualtheria shallon,§ Pursh, Amelancliier Ca¬ 
nadensis r,|| L., Rabus Nutlcanus ** M 09 ., R. spectabilis , Dougl.,ff Pi. leucodermis , 
Dough, Ribes divaricatum , Dough, R. niveum , Lindl., etc.,—in fact, all the 
edible berries of the part of the country where the particular tribe lives. One 
of the Vacciniums ( ovalifolium , Sm.) is well known to all north-western travel¬ 
lers (at least those who have been much among the northern Indians) as the le 
brou plant, being used to make a dainty of that name. The berries are gathered 
in the autumn, before they are quite ripe, and, after being pressed into a firm 
cake, it is dried and wrapped in bark and laid by. When it is to be used, a quan¬ 
tity is put into a vessel among cold water, and then stirred rapidly round with 
the hand, which must be free from grease, until it assumes a paste-like form. 
More water is then added and more stirring applied, until it assumes a form 
not unlike soapsuds. In this frothy state it is supped with long wooden spoons, 
made of Pinus monticola. It is pleasant to the taste, with a slightly bitter 
flavour, and is often prepared in Hudson’s Bay forts as an Indian dish, which 
no traveller ought to leave the North-west without tasting. At their high feast 
the Indians wiil sup of this until they are ready to burst, and then waddle to 
the water, drinking of which seems to allay the distention caused by the other. 
The Indians (and grizzly bears) of Southern Oregon and California eat the 
berries of the Manzanitta (Arctostaphylos glauca , Dougl.), but I have never 
* Hitters ‘ California,’ p. 392 ; vide also Paul Kane’s £ Artist’s Journey’ for some other 
methods of preparing acorns for food. 
f A portion of this paper was read before the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, May, 1868. 
X “ Huckle-berries.” § “ Salal.” || “ Service-berry.” 
*# “Thimble-berry.” ft “Salmon-berry.” 
