Health and Woodland Medicine

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XIL Health and Woodland Medicine FIRST AID. (Rudimentary) (Second Aid, and best, is bring the doctor) TO REVIVE FROM DROWNING A^ S SOON as the patient is in a safe place, loosen the /% clothing if any. X JL (2) Empty the lungs of water, by laying the body breast down, and lifting it by the middle, with the head hanging down. Hold thus for a few seconds, till the water is evidently out. (3) Turn the patient on his breast, face downward. (4) Give artificial respiration thus: by pressing the lower ribs down and forward toward the head, then release. Repeat about twelve times to the minute. (5) Apply warmth and friction to extremities, rubbing toward the heart. (6) DON'T GIVE UP! Persons have been saved after hours of steady effort, and after being under water over twenty minutes. (7) When natural breathing is reestablished, put the patient into warm bed, with hot-water bottles, warm drinks, or stimulants, in teaspoonfuls, fresh air, and quiet. Let him sleep, and all will be well.3o6 The Book of Woodcraft SUNSTROKE (i) Reduce the temperature of the patient and the place — that is, move the patient at once to a cooler spot, if possible, in the shade. (2) Loosen or remove the clothing about the neck and body. (3) Apply cold water or ice to the head and body, or even wrap the patient in sheets wet from time to time with cold water. (4) Use no stimulant, but allow free use of cold water to drink. BURNS AND SCALDS Exclude the air by covering the burn with a thin paste of baking-soda, starch, flour, vaseline, oHve oil, linseed oil, castor-oil, lard, cream, or cold cream. Cover the burn first with the smear; next with a soft rag soaked in the smear. Shock always accompanies severe burns, and must be treated. HEMORRHAGE, OR INTERNAL BLEEDING This is usually from the lungs or stomach. If from the lungs, the blood is bright-red and frothy, and is coughed up; if from the stomach, it is dark, and is vomited. Cause the patient to lie down, with head lower than body. Small pieces of ice should be swallowed, and ice-bags, or snow, cold water, etc., applied to the place whence it comes. Hot applications may be applied to the extremi- ties, but avoid stimulants, unless the patient is very weak.Health and Woodland Medicine 307 CUTS AND WOUNDS After making sure that no dirt or foreign substance is in the wound, the first thing is tight bandaging — to close it and stop the bleeding. The more the part is raised above the heart — the force-pump — the easier it is to do this. If the blood comes out in spurts, it means an artery has been cut; for this, apply a twister or tourniquet — that is, make a big knot in a handkerchief, tie it round the limb, with the knot just above the wound, and twist it round with a stick till the flow is stopped. LIGHTNING To revive one stunned by a thunderbolt, dash cold water over him. SHOCK OR NERVOUS COLLAPSE A person suffering from shock has pale, dull face, cold skin, feeble breathing, rapid, feeble pulse, listless, half- dead manner. Place him on his back with head low. Give stimulants, such as hot tea or coffee, or perhaps one drink of spirits. Never remove the clothing, but cover the person up. Rub the limbs and place hot-water bottles around the body. Most persons recover in time, without aid, but those with weak hearts need help. FAINTING Fainting is caused by the arrest of the blood supply to the brain, and is cured by getting the heart to correct the lack. To aid in this have the person lie down with the head lower than the body. Loosen the clothing. Give fresh air.3o8 The Book of Woodcraft Rub the limbs. Use smelling-salts. Do not let him get up until fully recovered. MAD DOG OR SNAKE BITE Put a tight cord or bandage around the limb between the wound and the heart. Suck the wound many times and wash it with hot water to make it bleed. Burn it with strong ammonia or caustic or a white-hot iron; or cut out the wounded parts with a sharp knife or razor, if you can- not get to a doctor. INSECT STINGS Wash with oil or weak ammonia, or very salt water, or paint with iodine. TESTS OF DEATH Hold a cold mirror to the nostrils or mouth. This shows at once if there is any breath. Push a pin into the flesh. If living, the hole will close again; if dead, it will remain open. CINDERS OR SAND IN THE EYE Can be removed with the tip of a lead-pencil, or the wet end of a tiny roll of soft paper. I have seen a woman lick the cinder out of her child's eye when other means were lacking. BOOKS RECOMMENDED " First Aid " By Major Charles Lynch. P. Blakiston Sons & Co., 1017 Walnut St., Philadelphia, 191 1. 30 cents.Health and Woodland Medicine 309 Some Wildwood Remedies or Simples {In case no standard remedies he at hand.) For trees mentioned, but not illustrated here, see Forestry section. Antiseptic or wound-wash: Strong, salt brine, as hot as can be borne : a handful of salt in a quart of water. Balm for wounds: Balsam Fir. The gum was con- sidered a sovereign remedy for wounds, inside or out; it is still used as healing salve, usually spread on a piece of linen and laid over the wound for a dressing. Bleeding, to stop, nose or otherwise: Gather a lot of leaves of witch hazel, dry them, and powder them to snuff. A pinch drawn up the nose or on a wound will stop bleeding. The Indians used a pinch of powder from a puff ball. Bowel complaint: Get about a pound of small roots of sassafras, or else two pounds of the bark, smashed up. Boil in a gallon of water till only one pint of the fluid is left. A tablespoonful of this three times a day is a good remedy for bowel trouble. Chills and fever: Two pounds of white poplar or white willow bark, smashed up and soaked for twenty-four hours in a gallon of water and boiled down to a pint, make a sure remedy for chills and fever. A dessertspoonful four times a day is the proper dose. A tea made of spice bush twigs is a good old remedy for chills and fever. Make it strong, and sip it hot all day. Cold or fever cure: A decoction of the poplar bark or roots of flowering dogwood is a good substitute for quinine, as tonic and cold cure, bowel cure, and fever driver. Cough remedy: (That is, to soften and soothe a cough:) Slippery elm inner bark boiled, a pound to the gallon, boiled down to a pint, and given a teaspoonful every hour. Linseed is used the same way, and is all the better if licorice or sugar of any kind be added.3IO The Book of Woodcraft Spice bush. Sassafras. Golden willow.Health and Woodland Medicine ^, ii Flowering dogwood. Black cherry. Y " Cherry leaf — teeth enlarged.312 The Book cl Woodcraft Another woodland remedy is the syrup made by boiling down the sap of the sweet birch tree. Cough and irritated throat: Mix a spoonful of sugar with two of butter, and eat it slowly. This usually stops a hacking cough that would keep the patient from sleep. Cough and lung remedy: A pound of inner bark of black cherry, soaked twenty-four hours in a gallon of water and boiled down to one pint, makes a famous cough remedy and lung balm. A tablespoonful three or four times a day. Diuretic: A decoction of the inner bark of elder is a powerful diuretic. Face-ache: Heat some sand in the frying-pan, pour it into a Hght bag and hold it against the place. The sand should be as hot as can be borne. This treatment is good for most aches and pains. Inflammation of the eyes or skin: Relieved by washing with strong tea of the bark of witch hazel. Ink: The berries and leaves of red or staghorn sumac boiled together in water make a permanent black ink. Lung halm: Infusion of black cherry bark, root pre- ferred, is a powerful tonic for lungs and bowels. Good also as a skin wash for sores. When half wilted, the leaves are poisonous to cattle. Nose-bleed: A snuff made of the dried leaves of witch hazel stops nose-bleed at once, or any bleeding. Nose stopped up at night: Wet the nose outside, as well as in, with cold water, and prop the head up higher with pillows. Pimples and skin rash: A valuable tonic or skin wash for such troubles is strong tea made of the twigs of alder. Poison ivy sting, to cure: Wash every hour or two with soapy water as hot as can be borne, then with hot salt water. This relieves the sting, and is the best simple remedy. The sure cure is washing the parts two or threeHealth and Woodland Medicine 313 Elder. Wintergreen Poison ivy.314 The Book of Woodcraft times in alcohol in which is dissolved sugar-of-lead, 20 to I. This will cure the sores in three days unless the trouble is complicated with rheumatism, in which case you need a doctor. The same remarks apply to poison oak and poison sumac. Purge, mild: A de- coction of the inner bark of butternut, preferably of root, is a safe, mild purge. Boil a pound in a gallon of water till a quart only is left. A teaspoonful of it is a dose. Purge, strong: The young leaflets of elder are a drastic purgative. They may be ground up and taken as decoction, boiling a pound in a gallon of water till it makes a quart. Use in Witch hazel. doses one very small teaspoonful. Purge, fierce: The root, fresh or not long dry, of hlueflag, should be pow- dered and given in twenty- grain doses. A grain is about the weight of a grain of wheat, or one twenty- fourth of an ounce; so twenty grains is what will cover a quarter-dollar to the depth of one sixteenth inch. Rheumatism: Put the patient in bed. Make him drink Poison sumac.Health and Woodland Medicine

plenty of hot water, or better a thin extract of sassafras, or tea made of wintergreen leaves. Keep very warm, so as to get a good sweat. Rub him all over, especially the place afflicted, with grease or vaseline. The only use of these last things is to protect the skin. It is the rubbing that does the good. Alder. The Indian treatment was a Turkish bath, as described later. Sores and wounds: Can be cleansed by washing with hot brine, that is a handful of salt in a quart of water. Sunburn: If you take your sunburn gradually, a little each day, it doesn't hurt. But if you are foolhardy at first, and expose your white skin, arms, or neck and back to the blaze of the summer sun for a few hours you will pay a heavy price. At night you will be in a torment of fever- fire. The punishment may last for days. Huge blisters will arise, and you may be obliged for a time to give up all3i6 The Book of Woodcraft active sports. As soon as you find you are overburnt, put cold cream, vaseline, sweet-oil, or grease of any kind on the place, and keep it covered up. In a day or two you will be well. But it is best to go slow. Do not get overdone at all, and so have no damage to repair. Maie-fern. Sweater: A famous woodman's sweater is tea made from the leaves and twigs of hemlock. Make a gallon of about two pounds of twigs, etc., and sip it all day. Sweet birch. Tapeworm: Boil a pound of smashed-up male-fern or evergreen fern root in a gallon of water till but a pint of fluid is left. A teaspoonful three or four times a day — followed by a purge — is a famous remedy.Health and Woodland Medicine

Tonic: An infusion or tea of black alder bark is a wonderful tonic, and a healer of the skin, inside and out. Boil a pound of bark in a gallon of water till a quart is left. Take half a cupful four times a day. This is a bracer for the feeble constitution. Tonic: A fine tonic is made from the twigs of sweet birch, by boiling two pounds of twigs in a gallon of water, till it makes about a pint of strong brown tea, which should be sipped, about half a pint a day. Sumac. Tonic: A decoction, or boiled in water extract, of almost any part of the red sumac tree, is a powerful tonic. Make it of two pounds of sumac in a gallon of water boiled to a pint. Take a big spoonful twice a day. Wash for sore throat: Inner bark of hemlock is a power- ful astringent and good as a throat wash. A pound of bark in a gallon of water is boiled to a quart. Worms: The berries of black alder used as tincture3i8 The Book of Woodcraft (bruised in alcohol) are a powerful remedy for worms. A dessertspoonful three times a day is a dose. Worms and tofiic: The inner bark and root bark of tulip tree, either as dry powder or infusion, are powerful tonics and especially good for worms. Wound-wash. See Antiseptic. For other remedies, see Dr. Elisha Smith's "Botanic Physician," Cincinnati, 1844. AN INDIAN BATH OR SWEAT LODGE A Turkish bath in the woods is an interesting idea. The Indians have always used this style of treatment and, with their old-time regard for absolute cleanliness, took the bath once a week, when circumstances permitted. Their plan was to make a low, round-topped lodge, about five feet high and as much across, by bending over a number of long willow poles with both ends stuck in the ground. A few slender cross-bars lashed on here and there com- pleted the skeleton dome. This was covered over with a number of blankets, or waterproof covers of canvas, etc. A shallow pit was dug near one side. The patient stripped and went in. A fire was made previously close at hand, and in this a number of stones heated. When nearly red-hot, these were rolled in, under the cover of the Sweat Lodge into the pit. The patient had a bucket of water and a cup. He poured water on the hot stones, a dense steam arose, which filled the Lodge, causing the intense heat, which could be modified at will. The more water on the stones the greater, of course, the steam. Meantime, the patient drinks plenty of water, and is soon in a profuse sweat. Half an hour of this is enough for most persons. They should then come out, have a partial rub-down, and plunge into cold water, or have it thrown over them. After this aHealth and Woodland Medicine 519 thorough rub-down finishes, and the patient should roll up in a blanket and lie down for an hour. Aromatic herbs or leaves are sometimes thrown on the stones to help the treatment. This is fine to break up a cold or help a case of rheu- matism. I have found it an admirable substitute for the Turkish bath. LATRINE Nothing in camp is more important than the latrine or toilet. It is fully described on page 262. THE KEEN EYES OF THE INDIAN. DO YOU WISH TO HAVE THEM? Near-sightedness. An eminent eye doctor, Dr. W. H. Bates of New York, has found out how you can have sight as keen and eyes as good as those of the Indians who live out of doors. After eight years' study of the sub- ject he has established the following : a. The defect known as near-sight or short-sight seldom exists at birth, but is acquired. b. Besides being acquirable, it is preventable and in some cases curable. c. It comes through continual use of the eye for near objects only, during the years of growth. The Remedy. The remedy is, give the eye regular mus- cular exercise every day for far-sight by focussing it for a few minutes on distant objects. It is not enough to merely look at the far-off landscapes. The eye must be definitely focussed on something, Uke print, before the necessary muscular adjustment is perfect and the effect obtained. The simplest way to do this is — get an ordinary eye testing card, such as is sold for a nickel at any optician's.320 The Book of Woodcraft Hang it up as far off as possible in the schoolroom and use it each day. Train your eyes to read the smallest letters from your seat. By such exercises during the years of growth almost all short-sight or near-sight, and much blurred sight or astig- matism, may be permanently prevented. An interesting proof is found by Dr. Casey Wood in the fact that while wild animals have good sight, caged animals that have lost all opportunities for watching distant objects are generally myopic or short-sighted. In other words, nature adapts the tool to its job. DRY SOCKS A certain minister knowing I had much platform ex- perience said to me once, "How is it that your voice never grows husky in speaking? No matter how well I may be my voice often turns husky in the pulpit." He was a thin, nervous man, very serious about his work and anxious to impress. I replied : "You are nervous before preaching, which makes your feet sweat. Your socks are wet when you are in the pulpit, and the sympathy between soles and voice is well known. Put on dry socks just before entering the pulpit and you need not fear any huskiness." He looked amazed and said: "You certainly have sized me up all right. I'll try next Sunday." I have not seen him since and don't know the result, but I know that the principle is sound — wet feet, husky throat. SHUT YOUR MOUTH AND SAVE YOUR LIFE This was the title of an essay by George Catlin, a famous outdoor man, who lived among the Indians, and wrote aboutHealth and Woodland Medicine 321 them 1825 to '40. In this he pointed out that it is exceed- ingly injurious to breathe through your mouth; that, indeed, many persons injured their lungs by taking in air that was not strained and warmed first through the nose, and in many cases laid the foundation of diseases which killed them. don't turn out your toes much When you see a man whose toes are excessively turned out, you may know he was born and brought up on side- walks. He is a poor walker and will not hold out on an all day- tramp. The mountaineer and the Indian scout always keep their feet nearly straight. It is easier on the feet and it lengthens the stride; makes, in short, a better traveler. A glance at his tracks will tell you how a person walks. tobacco No Indian was allowed to use tobacco until a proven warrior. It was injurious to the young they said, but in the grown man if used only as a burnt sacrifice it helped in prayer and meditation. Some of the finest Indians, Spotted-tail for example, never smoked as a habit. In the New York Literary Digest for December 30, 191 1, there appeared the following important article: INJURIOUSNESS OF TOBACCO The opinion that tobacco is injurious to the young and apparently harmless to adults, quoted in these pages recently from American Medicine, is adjudged by the editor of Good Health (Battle Creek, Mich., December) to be one of those half- truths which Tennyson tells us are "ever the blackest lies."322 The Book of Woodcraft He agrees heartily with the first part of it, but asserts that no respectable medical authority will be found to endorse the other half of it. Has the editor of American Medicine, he asks, never heard of tobacco blindness? And how about cancer of the lip and of the throat, diseases almost confined to smokers? Bou- chard, of Paris, an authority on diseases of the heart and blood- vessels, names tobacco, the writer goes on to say, as one of the leading causes of this deadly class of maladies. And this is by no means a new idea. Medical examiners tell us that nine tenths of the rejected applicants for the Army are refused on account of tobacco-heart. We read further: "King Edward died of tobacco-heart. Mark Twain was another victim of this disease. A king of Hungary fell off his horse some time ago and lost his life because of defective vision due to smoking. The death-rate from disease of the heart and blood-vessels has increased, within the last ten years, from 6 per 100,000 to 24 per 100,000 or 400 per cent. Is there no evidence from these facts that it is not 'harmless to adults'? "No experienced coach will allow men in training for athletic events to make use of tobacco, so well known are its effects upon the heart. A well-known physician said to the writer just before the Yale-Harvard boat-race : ' I am sure Yale will be beaten, for the coach permits the men to use tobacco.' "The ill effects of tobacco upon the kidneys are familiar to all physicians. Statistics gathered some years ago showed that 10 per cent, of all smokers have albumen in the urine. The physician forbids the use of tobacco or very greatly restricts its use in cases of Bright's disease. "But even on a priori grounds it may be safely said that tobacco is anything but harmless. The deadly effects of tobacco are well enough known. In very minute doses nicotin produces deadly effects. One tenth of a grain killed a goat, and a much smaller dose killed a frog. The farmer uses tobacco leaves and stems to kill ticks on sheep. An eminent German botanist has recently shown that tobacco, even in minute quantities, produces pernicious effects on plants. "Numerous investigators have shown that pigeons are proof against anthrax, a disease very deadly to sheep. Charrin showed that after giving to a pigeon a very small dose of nicotin the creature quickly dies when infected with the anthrax germ.Health and Woodland Medicine 323 "Doctor Wright, of London, showed that nicotin lowers the tuberculo-opsonic index of the blood; that is, it lowers the power of resistance of the body against tuberculosis. He cited the case of a young man who was a great smoker and whose tuberculo- opsonic index was zero instead of 100. The yoimg man was suffering from tuberculosis and died within a few weeks. "Post-mortem examination made at the Phipps Institute showed that smokers are twice as subject to tuberculosis as non-smokers, " These are only a few of the thousand facts, the writer goes on, that might be cited on his side of the question. Nothing in them shows that there is any distinction between the child and the adult, and the fact that the effects are often less apparent in the latter is due, we are told, solely to the fact that they possess greater vital resistance than children. Finally, he remarks : "We would remind the editor to review the study of phys- iologic chemistry and pathology, and consult a few up-to-date standard works on the practice of medicine in relation to the cause of B right's disease, arteriosclerosis, angina pectoris and other maladies involving the heart and blood-vessels, the death- rate from which has kept even pace along with the increase of tobacco during the last thirty or forty years. " SEX MATTERS Some of our best authorities tell us that more than half of our diseases, mental and physical, come from ignorance and consequent abuse of our sexual powers. We have long known and realized vaguely that virtue and strength are synonymous; that the Puritan fathers, for example, notwithstanding their narrowness and their unlovely lives, were upon the whole a people of pure life, who reaped their reward in their wonderful mental, moral, and physical strength, not entirely gone to-day. All men realize the desirability of virtue; and hitherto we have attempted to keep our young people virtuous by keeping them ignorant. Most thinking men to-day admit3H The Book of Woodcraft and maintain that as a protection ignorance is a sad failure. It is far better for the parent to teach the child the truth — the sacred truth — by degrees, as he or she is ready for it. Most children are ready at seven or eight to know something about the process of procreation, especially if they live on a farm where they see it all about them. No boy is any the worse for learning of these things. All are better for knowing them. Rest assured of this, more nations have been wiped out by sex abuse than by bloody war. The nation that does not bring up its youth with pure ideals is certainly going to destruction. Every leader of boys should talk frankly to his charges and read to them or have them read: From Youth Into Manhood," by Dr. Winfield S. Hall. Y. M. C. A. Press, 124 East Twenty-eighth Street, New York. STARVATION FOODS IN THE NORTHERN WOODS For a man who is lost, the three great dangers in order of importance, are Fear, Cold, and Hunger. He may endure extreme hunger for a week and extreme cold for a day, but extreme fear may undo him in an hour. There is no way of guarding against this greatest danger excepting by assur- ing him that he is fortified against the other two. Starvation is rare in warm regions and I suppose that no one ever starved during the late summer and early autumn. The woods then are full of roots, nuts, and berries that, as a rule, are wholesome and palatable, and usually there is a large amount of small game at this season. The greatest danger of starvation is in the far north during winter. By the far north I do not mean the Polar regions, where few go and where life usually depends onHealth and Woodland Medicine 325 keeping touch with the ship, but the wooded regions of Canada and Alaska where there are hundreds, yes, thou- sands of travelers each year, and where each year one hears of some one dying of starvation, through ignorance of the few emergency foods that abound in that country. Fish are not included among these foods, for the wanderer in the snow is not likely to be equipped with fish hook, spear or net. The fish, moreover, are in winter protected by ice of great thickness. Animal food is exceedingly scarce at such times, the forms most likely to be found are rabbits, mice, insect-borers, ants, and rawhide gear. Of course the mounted Indian never starved, because he would bleed his horse each day and live on the blood; taking care that his steed had fodder enough to keep up his strength. But we must assume that this source of food is not avail- able — that our traveler is on foot. A well-known explorer states in his book that northern expeditions should be undertaken chiefly or only in rabbit years — that is, when rabbits are at the maximum of their remarkable periodic increase. While there is some truth in this, we must remember, first, a rabbit year in one region is not necessarily a rabbit year in another, so we could not foretell with certainty what would be a season of abundant food in the region proposed for the expedition; second, men will at any risk go into the vast northern wilderness every year, for it is destined to be the great field for exploration, and every traveler there ought to know the foods he can count on finding at all times. Rabbits. If when in straits for food he have the luck to be in a rabbit country, he should select a thicket in which their tracks and runs are very numerous. By quietly walking around it, he is likely to see one of these silent, ghostlike hares, and can easily secure it with his gun. Without a gun his next best reliance is on snares. String,326 The Book of Woodcraft a shoelace, a buckskin thong, or even a strip of clothing, may be used as a snare. There are many ways of making a rabbit snare, but the simplest is the best. The essentials are, first, the snare — an ordinary running noose; second, a twitch-up ; that is either a branch bent down, or a pole laid in the crotch of a sapling. If the nearest sapling does not have a crotch the twitch-up can be fastened to it with a willow withe. Pole for rabbit snare and various ways of setting the noose. The snare is fast to the end of the pole, and spread open in a well-worn runway. The loop is about four inches across and placed four inches from the ground. The pole twitch-up is held down by placing the cross-piece of the snare under some projecting snag, as shown. The rabbit, bounding along, puts his head in the noose, a slight jerk frees the cross piece from its holder, and in a moment the rabbit is dangling in the air. The cross piece can be dispensed with if the snare be wrapped three or four times around a snag. The squaws often build a little hedge across a rabbit thicket, so as to close all but three or fourHealth and Woodland Medicine 327 runs, each of which is guarded by a snare. They then drive the rabbits back and forth, capturing several at each drive. Mice swarm in all the northern country wherever there is heavy sedge, or where the ground is deeply buried in moss, and that means most of the Far North. If I were seeking for mice I should pick out a sedgy hollow, one evidently not actually a pond in summer, and dig through snow and tangle down to the runways, at the level of the ground. If one has traps they may be set here with the certainty of taking some game within a few hours. But usually the mice are so common that they may be caught by hand. I have frequently done this, taking a hint from the method of a fox hunting mice. He advances very slowly, watching for a movement in the cover. As soon as this is seen he seizes the whole tussock, and, after the death squeeze, separates his victim from the grass. Deep snow, unfortunately, puts the mice beyond reach, and excludes them from the bill of fare when most needed. Ants, the next on our list, are usually to be found dor- mant in dead and hollow trees, sometimes in great numbers. Bears and flickers eat them in quantities, and I have met with men who claim to have done so, but I never tried them myself and suspect that they are unpleasantly acid. Insect-borers. These are the fat white grubs that winter under the bark of trees and in dead timber. They are accounted acceptable food by bears and by most birds, which is almost if not quite conclusive evidence that they are good for human food. Their claws, nippers, and spines should be removed. To get them one must have an axe. Rawhide, or even leather, if boiled for hours, will make a nutritious soup. Many a man has bridged the awful gap by boiUng his boots, whence the phrase to express the final extreme, I'll eat my boots first." Mark Twain was once328 The Book of Woodcraft put to this final resort and recorded afterward that "the holes tasted the best." But the hardest case of all is the best for present dis- cussion. That is the case of the man who has not happened on a rabbit region and who has neither gun nor axe, string nor rawhide. He must look entirely to the vegetable world', for sustenance, as do all the northern natives in times of' direst famine. Bark and buds. In the forest region are several foods that are available in the depth of winter. First of these is the thin green outer skin or bark, the white innermost bark, and the buds (not the middle brown bark) of quaking asp or white poplar. The brown bark is highly charged with a bitter principle, partly tannin, that makes it unpalatable as well as unwholesome. Aspen bark is a favorite food] with elk, deer, beavers, squirrels, rabbits, and mice in' winter. I found that by boiling it for some hours it is reduced to a gelatinous and apparently nutritious mass. 1 1 have also found the buds of basswood a palatable food' supply. In my early days, in the backwood of Canada, we children frequently allayed our hunger with basswood buds; and spruce and tamarac shoots. Dr. C. C. Curtis informs me that in British Columbia the^ natives eat the inner bark of willows, hemlock, and other trees, and I have often heard of the Indians eating the innermost bark of birch. All these are common foods with herbivorous animals. Man, having a less capable stomach, will do well to pre- digest such by roasting or long boiUng. Toadstools. There is yet another supply that is commonly shunned, namely — toadstools. No toadstool growing on trees is known to be poisonous, and most contain nutriment — especially the birch polyporus, which grows on birch trees and has pores instead of gills. A toadstool gnawedHealth and Woodland Medicine 329 by mice or squirrels is usually good. References to the article on toadstools will show that none but the Amanitas are deadly, and these are well known by their white or yellow gills, their parasol shape, the ring on their upper stem, and the cup out of which they spring. They grow on the ground in the woods. Lichens. But the surest food supply of all is that from the lowly lichens, which exist in enormous quantities • throughout the great land of big hunger and little sticks. Doctor C. C. Curtis says: "All lichens are rich in carbohydrates; lichen starch or lichenin, constituting 40 to 60 per cent, of the bulk of the higher forms." They supply winter food to all the northern quadrupeds. The reindeer, the white hare, the musk-ox, and the lemming find in them their chief support; and those which do not live directly on the lichen do so indirectly by preying on those who do. i They are not choice dainties for human food. But Richardson, the famous northern naturalist, and the party with him, as well as unnumbered Eskimos and travelers, have Hved for weeks on the lichens when other food has failed. The kinds most useful are the Iceland moss {Cetraria icelandica), the reindeer moss {Cladonia rangiferina) , and the rock-tripe or famine-food {Umhilicaria arciica), and other species. To these we might add the Lucanora esculenta or manna lichen, the manna of the Bible; but as , this is an old-world species it is not within the intended scope of this article. The Iceland moss is a rigid, erect, branching moss, almost like a seaweed, and of brown color. It abounds in [ most northern latitudes. Richardson speaks of the Barren Grounds being covered with Cetraria of two species. When330 The Book of Woodcraft boiled for an hour, it is highly nutritious. Those who wish to familiarize themselves with its appearance as a pre- liminary of northern travel can see it in most drug shops. The reindeer moss is by far the most abundant of the food lichens. There are thousands of square miles in the barren northern country, deeply covered with reindeer moss. It is indeed the most abundant form of vegetable life, the Cetraria. main support of the reindeer, and the ever-present and obvious guarantee to the traveler that he need not starve. It is readily known by its soft gray-green color and its branching like a little tree without leaves. It grows on rocks or on the ground, and masses sometimes like sponges. It is said to be a nutritious food. It is gritty unless col- lected carefully and washed. This latter, fortunately, is easily done, for grit sinks in the water and the moss floats when fresh. Boiling is the usual way of cooking it. Reindeer moss from Connecticut, however, I boiled for several hours without producing any evident change. It continued to be tough and unpalatable, and tasteless except for a slight suggestion of fish oil. Roasting was more successful than boiling. When care- fully browned, I found it tasted not unlike burnt breadHealth and Woodland Medicine

crumbs, and, of course, was easily chewed. While roasting it gave off a smell, like seaweed. Rock-tripe. But the last, the rock-tripe or famine-food of the Indians, has proved the most satisfactory of all the starvation foods that I have experimented with. Every one knows it as the flat leathery crinkle-edged Hchen that G. Muhl. Conn. sp. Rock-tripes. grows on rocks. It is blackish and brittle in dry weather, but dull dark greenish on the upper side in wet. It is largely composed of nutritious matter that can be assimi- lated by the human stomach. Unfortunately it is also a powerful purge, unless dried before being boiled, as food. Specimens gathered from the rocks in Connecticut — it is very widely distributed even in New England — after dry- ing and two or three hours boiling, produced a thick muci- laginous Uquid and a granular mass of soHd jelly, that were332 The Book of Woodcraft mild and pleasant to the taste, entirely without the bitter- ness of Cetraria, etc. Indeed, it was sweetish, with a slight flavor of licorice and of sago, far from unpalatable at any time, and to a starving man, no doubt, a boon from heaven. It is less abundant in the north country than the reindeer moss, but yet of general distribution and to be found in great quantities and at all seasons of the year. Ledum palustre. Ledum groenlandicum or Labrador Tea. Rock-tripe is the food that saved the life of Sir John Franklin and Dr. J. Richardson on their long and desper- ate journey for three months, in the summer and autumn of 182 1, on foot from Fort Enterprise to the Polar Sea and back. The record of that expedition shows that when they were out of game, as soon happened, their diet was varied with burnt bones when they could find them and toasted iHealth and Woodland Medicine 333 leather and hide; but the staple and mainstay was rock- tripe. It is not delicious food, nor is it highly nutritious, but it will sustain life, and every traveler should know what it is like and how to use it. Drinks. It will be a fitting conclusion to this question of foods if we note one or two possible drinks. Franklin and Richardson used Labrador tea as a hot drink. This is an infusion of the plants figured here. But good and slightly nourishing drinks are made also of the buds, sprouts, or inner bark of spruce, basswood, tamarac, birch, and es- pecially of slippery elm.