for the boiler. Such an existence is, however, precarious; the savages, who are not of a provident nature, are obliged. to go afterward in quest of roots, grain, berries and fruits;
ch as the thorny bush which bears a sweet, pleasant blackberry; the rose-buds, mountain cherry, cormier or service berry, various sorts of gooseberries and currants of exellent flavor; raspberries, the hawthorn berry, the wappato,
cry nourishing bulbous root; the bitter root, whose appellation sufficiently denotes its peculiar quality, is, however, very healthy; it grows in light, dry, sandy soil, as also the
caious or biscuit root. The former is of a thin and cylindrical form; the latter, though farinaceous and insipid, is a substitute for bread; it resembles a small white radish; the watery potato, oval and greenish, is prepared like our ordinary potato, but greatly inferior to it; the small onion; the sweet onion, which bears a lovely flower resembling the tulip. Strawberries are common and delicious.
To this catalogue I could add a number of detestable fruits and roots which serve as nutriment for the Indians, but at which a civilized stomach would revolt and nauseate. I cannot pass over in silence the camas root, and the peculiar manner in which it is prepared. It is abundant, and,
I may say, is the queen root of this clinic. It is a small, white, vapid onion, when removed from the earth, but comes black and sweet when prepared for food. The women arm themselves with long crooked sticks to go in search of the camas. After having procured a certain quantity of these roots, by dint of long and painful labor, they make an excavation in the earth from twelve to fifteen inches deep, and of proportional diameter, to contain the roots. They cover the bottom with closely-cernented pavement, which they make red hot by means of a fire. After having carefully withdrawn all the coals, they cover the stones with grass or wet hay-, then place a layer of camas, another of wet hay, a third of bark overlaid with mold, whereon is Icl)t a glowing fire for fifty, sixty, and sometimes seventy hours. The camas thus acquires a consistency equal to that of the