Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 5.djvu/350

 sublime views that could possibly be, of rugged moun- tains, deep valleys, and mountain rills. At noon reached the old Establishment, where Mr. Finlay received me most kindly, regretting at the same time that he had not a morsel of food to offer me, he and his family having been subsisting for several, at least six, weeks on the roots of Phalangium Quamash (Scilla esculenta, Bot. Mag. t. 2774), called by the natives all over the country, Camass, on those of Lewisia rediviva, (Bot. Misc. t. 70), and on a black Lichen (L. Jubatus), which grows on the pines. The mode of preparing the latter was as follows: After clearing it thoroughly from the dead twigs and pieces of bark to which it adheres, it is immersed in water, and steeped till it becomes perfectly soft, when it is placed between two layers of ignited stone, with the precaution of protecting it with grass and dead leaves, lest it should burn. The process of cooking takes a night, and before the Lichen cools, it is made into a cake much in the same way as the Phalangium Quamass, when it is considered fit for use. A cake of this kind, with a basin of water, was all that Mr. Finlay had to offer me. Great, therefore, was my pleasure at being able to requite his hospitality by giving him a share of the provisions with which Mr. Dease's liberality had supplied me, and which, though far from luxurious fare, was yet the best that he and his family had tasted for a long time. I had also some game in my saddle bags which I had killed by the way, and of which I gave him half. The principal object of my visit to Mr. Finlay was to get my gun repaired, and as he was the only person who could do it within a distance of eight hundred miles, and this article being a matter of perhaps vital importance to me, I hastened to inform him of my request, though my imperfect knowledge of French, the only language that he could speak, much limited our intercourse, and prevented my deriving from him all the information