ary. Two kinds of prunus also grow here, one of which*, a handsome
small tree, produces a black fruit, having a very astringent
taste, whence the term choke-cherry applied to it. The Crees call
it tawquoy meena. and esteemed it to be, when dried and bruised,
a good addition to pemmican. The other speciesf is a less elegant
shrub, but is said to bear a bright red cherry, of a pleasant sweet
taste. Its Cree name is passe-eawey-mcenan, and it is known to
occur as far north as Great Slave Lake.
The most esteemed fruit of the country, however, is the produce
of the aronia ovalis. Under the name of meesasscootoomeena it is a
favourite dish at most of the Indian feasts* and mixed with pemmican,
it renders that greasy food actually palatable. A great variety
of currants and gooseberries: are also mentioned by the natives,
under the name of sappoom-meena, but we only found three species
in the neighbourhood of Cumberland House. The strawberry,
called by the Crees otei-meena, or heart-berry, is found in abundance,
and rasps are common on the sandy banks of the rivers; The
fruits hitherto mentioned fall in the autumn, but the following
berries remain hanging on the bushes in the spring, and are considered
as much mellowed by exposure to the colds in winter. The
red wor.tleberry (vaccinium-vltis idea) is found every where, but is
more abundant in rocky places. It is aptly termed by the Crees
loeesaicgum-meena, sour berry. The common cranberry ( oxycoccos
palustris,) is distinguished from the preceding by its growing on
moist sphagnous spots, and is hence called maskcegomeena swamp-
berry. The American guelder rose, whose fruit so strongly resembles
the cranberry, is also common. There are two kinds of it,
( viburnum oxycocoos, and edule,) one termed by the natives pee-
poon-meena, winter-berrry, and the other mongsoa-meena, moose-
berry. There is also a berry of a bluish white colour, the produce
of the white cornel tree, which is named musquar-meena, bear-berry
Prunus Virginiana. f Prunus Pensylvanica.
because these animals are said to fatten on it. The dwarf Canadian
cornel, bears a corymb of red berries, which are highly ornamental
to the woods throughout the country, but are not otherwise
worthy of notice, for they have an insipid farinaceous taste,
and are. seldom gathered.
The Crees extract some beautiful colours from several of their
native vegetables, They dye their porcupine quills a beautiful
scarlet, with the roots of two species of bed-straw ( galium tinctorium,
and boreale) which they indiscriminately term saivoyan. The roots,
after being carefully washed and boiled gently in a clean copper
kettle, and a quantity of the juice of the moose-berry, strawberry,
cranberry, or arctic raspberry, is added together with a few red tufts
of pistils of the larch. The porcupine quills are plunged into the
liquor before it becomes quite cold, and are soon tinged of a beautiful
scarlet. The process sometimes fails, and produces only a dirty
brown, a circumstance which ought probably to be ascribed to the
use of an undue quantity of acid. They dye black with an ink
made of elder bark, and a little bog-iron-ore, dried and pounded,
and they have various modes of producing yellow. The deepest
colour is obtained from the dried root of a plant, which from their
description appears to be the cow-bane ( cicuta virosa.) An inferior
colour is . obtained from the bruised buds of the Dutch myrtle,
and they have discovered methods of dyeing with various lichens.
The quadrupeds that are hunted for food in this part of the
country, are the moose and the rein-deer, the former termed by
the Crees, mongsoa, or moosoa, the latter attekh. The buffalo or
bison, ( moostoosh,) the red-deer or American-stag, (wawaskeeshoo)
the apeesee-mongsoos, or jumping deer, the kinwaithoos, or long-tailed
deer, and the apistatchcekoos, a species of antelope; animals that
.frequent the plains above the forks of the Saskatchawan, are not
found in the neighbourhood of Cumberland House.
Of fur-bearing animals, various kinds of foxes (makkeesheiouc,j
N