Original - North Central Michigan College Library

first evening, reckoning upon a prosperousvoyage the next morning. On the first andsecond days I went out to hunt, but afterranging for many miles among the mountainsI returned in both instances without success.On the third day I found myself too weak towalk many yards without stopping to rest myself;and I returned in the evening with no morethan two snowbirds. 16On my arrival one of my men informed methat the other two had proposed to kill andfeed upon the young woman; and on myexamining them as to the truth of this accusationthey freely avowed it, and seemed to bemuch dissatisfied at my opposition to theirscheme.The next morning I ascended a lofty mountain,on the top of which I found a very highrock and this covered with a lichen which theChippewas call waac, and the Canadians11tripe de roche. I had previously been informedthat on occasions of famine this vegetable has16Emberiza hyemalis. Author.17This is an edible lichen often mentioned by earlyexplorers. Father Menard and his companions, winteringat Keweenaw Bay in 1660-61, used it to preservetheir lives through the winter. "They would put ahandful of it into their kettle, which would thickenthe water ever so little, forming a kind of foam or slimelike that of snails, and feeding their imagination morethan their bodies." Father Andre records that "Itis necessary to close one's eyes when one begins to eatit." Wis. Hist. Colls., XVI, 24. Editor.212