The Young Voyageurs: Boy Hunters in the North

by Mayne Reid

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

  A GRAND SUNDAY DINNER.

  After remaining a day at their first camp on the lake, our voyageurscontinued their journey. Their course lay a little to the west ofnorth, as the edge of the lake trended in that direction. Their usualplan, as already stated, was to keep out in the lake far enough to shunthe numerous indentations of the shore, yet not so far as to endangertheir little craft when the wind was high. At night they always landed,either upon some point or on an island. Sometimes the wind blew "deadahead," and then their day's journey would be only a few miles. Whenthe wind was favourable they made good progress, using the skin of thewapiti for a sail. On one of these days they reckoned a distance ofover forty miles from camp to camp. It was their custom always to lieby on Sunday, for our young voyageurs were Christians. They had done soon their former expedition across the Southern prairies, and they hadfound the practice to their advantage in a physical as well as a moralsense. They required the rest thus obtained; besides, a generalcleaning up is necessary, at least, once every week. Sunday was also aday of feasting with them. They had more time to devote to culinaryoperations, and the _cuisine_ of that day was always the most varied ofthe week. Any extra delicacy obtained by the rifle on previous days,was usually reserved for the Sunday's dinner. On the first Sunday afterentering Lake Winnipeg the "camp" chanced to be upon an island. It wasa small island, of only a few acres in extent. It lay near the shore,and was well wooded over its whole surface with trees of many differentkinds. Indeed, islands in a large lake usually have a great variety oftrees, as the seeds of all those sorts that grow around the shores arecarried thither by the waves, or in the crops of the numerous birds thatflit over its waters. But as the island in question lay in a lake,whose shores exhibited such a varied geology, it was natural thevegetation of the island itself should be varied. And, in truth; it wasso. There were upon it, down by the water's edge, willows andcottonwoods (_Populus angulata_), the characteristic _sylva_ of theprairie land; there were birches and sugar-maples (_Acer saccharinum_);and upon some higher ground, near the centre, appeared several speciesthat belonged more to the primitive formations that bounded the lake onthe east. These were pines and spruces, the juniper, and tamarack orAmerican larch (_Laryx Americana_); and among others could bedistinguished the dark cone-shaped forms of the red cedar-trees. Amongthe low bushes and shrubs there were rose and wild raspberry; there wereapple and plum trees, and whole thickets of the "Pembina" (_Viburnumoxycoccos_). There is, in fact, no part of the world where a greatervariety of wild fruit has been found indigenous than upon the banks ofthe Red River of the North, and this variety extended to the littleisland where our voyageurs had encamped.

  The camp had been placed under a beautiful tree--the tacamahac, orbalsam poplar (_Populus balsamifera_). This is one of the finest treesof America, and one of those that extend farthest north into the coldcountries. In favourable situations it attains a height of one hundredand fifty feet, with a proportionate thickness of trunk; but it isoftener only fifty or eighty feet high. Its leaves are oval, and, whenyoung, of a rich yellowish colour, which changes to a bright green. Thebuds are very large, yellow, and covered with a varnish, which exhales adelightful fragrance, and gives to the tree its specific name.

  It was near sunset on the afternoon of Saturday; the travellers had justfinished their repast, and were reclining around a fire of red cedar,whose delicate smoke curled up among the pale-green leaves of thepoplars. The fragrant smell of the burning wood, mixed with thearomatic odour of the balsam-tree, filled the air with a sweet perfume,and, almost without knowing why, our voyageurs felt a sense of pleasurestealing over them. The woods of the little island were not withouttheir voices. The scream of the jay was heard, and his bright azurewing appeared now and then among the foliage. The scarlet plumage ofthe cardinal grosbeak flashed under the beams of the setting sun; andthe trumpet-note of the ivory-billed woodpecker was heard near thecentre of the island. An osprey was circling in the air, with his eyebent on the water below, watching for his finny prey; and a pair of baldeagles (_Haliaetus leucocephalus_) were winging their way towards theadjacent mainland. Half-a-dozen turkey vultures (_Cathartes atratus_)were wheeling above the beach, where some object, fish or carrion, hadbeen thrown up by the waves.

  For some time the party remained silent, each contemplating the scenewith feelings of pleasure. Francois, as usual, first broke the silence.

  "I say, cook, what's for dinner to-morrow?"

  It was to Lucien this speech was addressed. He was regarded as the_maitre de cuisine_.

  "Roast or boiled--which would you prefer?" asked the cook, with asignificant smile.

  "Ha! ha! ha!" laughed Francois; "boiled, indeed! a pretty boil we couldhave in a tin cup, holding less than a pint. I wish we _could_ have aboiled joint and a bowl of soup. I'd give something for it. I'mprecious tired of this everlasting dry roast."

  "You shall have both," rejoined Lucien, "for to-morrow's dinner. Ipromise you both the soup and the joint."

  Again Francois laughed incredulously.

  "Do you mean to make soup in your shoe, Luce?"

  "No; but I shall make it in this."

  And Lucien held up a vessel somewhat like a water-pail, which the daybefore he had himself made out of birch-bark.

  "Well," replied Francois, "I know you have got a vessel that holdswater, but cold water ain't soup; and if you can boil water in thatvessel, I'll believe you to be a conjuror. I know you can do somecurious things with your chemical mixtures; but that you can't do, I'msure. Why, man, the bottom would be burned out of your bucket beforethe water got blood-warm. Soup, indeed!"

  "Never mind, Frank, you shall see. You're only like the rest ofmankind--incredulous about everything they can't comprehend. If you'lltake your hook and line, and catch some fish, I promise to give you adinner to-morrow, with all the regular courses--soup, fish, boiled,roast, and dessert, too! I'm satisfied I can do all that."

  "_Parbleu_! brother, you should have been cook to Lucullus. Well, I'llcatch the fish for you."

  So saying, Francois took a fish-hook and line out of his pouch, andfixing a large grasshopper upon the hook, stepped forward to the edge ofthe water, and cast it in. The float was soon seen to bob and thensink, and Francois jerked his hook ashore with a small and very prettyfish upon it of a silver hue, with which the lake and the waters runninginto it abound. Lucien told him it was a fish of the genus _Hyodon_.He also advised him to bait with a worm, and let his bait sink to thebottom, and he might catch a sturgeon, which would be a larger fish.

  "How do you know there are sturgeon in the lake?" inquired Francois.

  "I am pretty sure of that," answered the naturalist; "the sturgeon(_Acipenser_) is found all round the world in the northern temperatezone--both in its seas and fresh waters; although, when you go farthersouth into the warmer climate, no sturgeons exist. I am sure there aresome here, perhaps more than one species. Sink your bait, for thesturgeon is a toothless fish, and feeds upon soft substances at thebottom."

  Francois followed the advice of his brother, and in a few minutes he hada "nibble," and drew up and landed a very large fish, full three feet inlength. Lucien at once pronounced it a sturgeon, but of a species hehad not before seen. It was the _Acipenser carbonarius_, a curious sortof fish found in these waters. It did not look like a fish that wouldbe pleasant eating; therefore Francois again took to bobbing for thesilver fish (_Hyodons_), which, though small, he knew to be excellentwhen broiled.

  "Come," said Basil, "I must furnish my quota to this famous dinner thatis to be. Let me see what there is on the island in the way of game;"and shouldering his rifle, he walked off among the trees.

  "And I," said Norman, "am not going to eat the produce of other people'slabour without contributing my share."

  So the young trader took up his gun and went off in a differentdirection.

  "Good!" exclaimed Lucien, "we are likely to have plenty of meat for thedi
nner. I must see about the vegetables;" and taking with him hisnew-made vessel, Lucien sauntered off along the shore of the islet.Francois alone remained by the camp, and continued his fishing. Let usfollow the plant-hunter, and learn a lesson of practical botany.

  Lucien had not gone far, when he came to what appeared to be a meresedge growing in the water. The stalks or culms of this sedge were fulleight feet high, with smooth leaves, an inch broad, nearly a yard inlength, and of a light green colour. At the top of each stalk was alarge panicle of seeds, somewhat resembling a head of oats. The plantitself was the famous wild rice (_Zizania aquatica_), so much prized bythe Indians as an article of food, and also the favourite of many wildbirds, especially the reed-bird or rice-bunting. The grain of thezizania was not yet ripe, but the ears were tolerably well filled, andLucien saw that it would do for his purpose. He therefore waded in, andstripped off into his vessel as much as he wanted.

  "I am safe for rice-soup, at all events," soliloquised he, "but I thinkI can do still better;" and he continued on around the shore, andshortly after struck into some heavy timber that grew in a damp, richsoil. He had walked about an hundred yards farther, when he was seen tostoop and examine some object on the ground.

  "It ought to be found here," he muttered to himself; "this is the verysoil for it,--yes, here we have it!"

  The object over which he was stooping was a plant, but its leavesappeared shrivelled, or rather quite withered away. The upper part of abulbous root, however, was just visible above the surface. It was abulb of the wild leek (_Allium tricoccum_.) The leaves, when young, areabout six inches in length, of a flat shape and often three inchesbroad; but, strange to say, they shrivel or die off very early in theseason,--even before the plant flowers, and then it is difficult to findthe bulb.

  Lucien, however, had sharp eyes for such things; and in a short while hehad rooted out several bulbs as large as pigeons' eggs, and depositedthem in his birchen vessel. He now turned to go back to camp, satisfiedwith what he had obtained. He had the rice to give consistency to hissoup, and the leek-roots to flavour it with. That would be enough.

  As he was walking over a piece of boggy ground his eye was attracted toa singular plant, whose tall stem rose high above the grass. It wasfull eight feet in height, and at its top there was an umbel ofconspicuous white flowers. Its leaves were large, lobed, and toothed,and the stem itself was over an inch in diameter, with furrows runninglongitudinally. Lucien had never seen the plant before, although he hadoften heard accounts of it, and he at once recognised it from itsbotanical description. It was the celebrated "cow parsnip" (_Heracleumlanatum_). Its stem was jointed and hollow, and Lucien had heard thatthe Indians called it in their language "flute-stem," as they often usedit to make their rude musical instruments from, and also a sort ofwhistle or "call," by which they were enabled to imitate and decoyseveral kinds of deer. But there was another use to which the plant wasput, of which the naturalist was not aware. Norman, who had beenwandering about, came up at this moment, and seeing Lucien standing bythe plant, uttered a joyful "Hulloh!"

  "Well," inquired Lucien, "what pleases you, coz?"

  "Why, the flute-stem, of course. You talked of making a soup. It willhelp you, I fancy."

  "How?" demanded Lucien.

  "Why, the young stems are good eating, and the roots, if you will; butthe young shoots are better. Both Indians and voyageurs eat them insoup, and are fond of them. It's a famous thing, I assure you."

  "Let us gather some, then," said Lucien; and the cousins commencedcutting off such stems as were still young and tender. As soon as theyhad obtained enough, they took their way back to the camp. Basil hadalready arrived with a fine _prairie hen (Tetrao cupido_) which he hadshot, and Norman had brought back a squirrel; so that, with Francois'sfish, of which a sufficient number had been caught, Lucien was likely tobe able to keep his promise about the dinner.

  Francois, however, could not yet comprehend how the soup was to beboiled in a wooden pot; and, indeed, Basil was unable to guess. Norman,however, knew well enough, for he had travelled through the country ofthe Assinoboil Indians, who take their name from this very thing. Hehad also witnessed the operation performed by Crees, Chippewas, and evenvoyageurs, where metal or earthen pots could not be obtained.

  On the next day the mystery was cleared up to Basil and Francois.Lucien first collected a number of stones--about as large aspaving-stones. He chose such as were hard and smooth. These he flunginto the cinders, where they soon became red-hot. The water and meatwere now put into the bark pot, and then one stone after another,--eachbeing taken out as it got cooled,--until the water came to a fierceboil. The rice and other ingredients were added at the proper time, andin a short while an excellent soup was made. So much, then, for thesoup, and the boiled dishes with vegetables. The roast, of course, waseasily made ready upon green-wood spits, and the "game" was cooked in asimilar way. The fish were broiled upon the red cinders, and eaten, asis usual, after the soup. There were no puddings or pies, though, nodoubt, Lucien could have made such had they been wanted. In their placethere was an excellent service of fruit. There were strawberries andraspberries, one sort of which found wild in this region is of a mostdelicious flavour. There were gooseberries and currants; but the mostdelicious fruit, and that which Francois liked best, was a small berryof a dark blue colour, not unlike the huckleberry, but much sweeter andof higher flavour. It grows on a low bush or shrub with ovate leaves;and this bush when it blossoms is so covered with beautiful whiteflowers, that neither leaves nor branches can be seen. There are noless than four varieties of it known, two of which attain to the heightof twenty feet or more. The French Canadians call it "le poire," but inmost parts of America it is known as the "service-berry," althoughseveral other names are given to it in different districts. Lucieninformed his companions, while they were crushing its sweet purplishfruit between their teeth, that its botanical name is _Amelanchier_.

  "Now," remarked Francois, "if we only had a cup of coffee and a glass ofwine, we might say that we had dined in fashionable style."

  "I think," replied Lucien, "we are better without the wine, and as forthe other I cannot give you that, but I fancy I can provide you with acup of tea if you only allow me a little time."

  "Tea!" screamed Francois; "why, there's not a leaf of tea nearer thanChina; and for the sugar, not a grain within hundreds of miles!"

  "Come, Frank," said Lucien, "nature has not been so ungenerous here,--even in such luxuries as tea and sugar. Look yonder! You see thoselarge trees with the dark-coloured trunks. What are they?"

  "Sugar-maples," replied Francois.

  "Well," said Lucien, "I think even at this late season we might contriveto extract sap enough from them to sweeten a cup of tea. You may try,while I go in search of the tea-plant."

  "Upon my word, Luce, you are equal to a wholesale grocery. Very well.Come, Basil, we'll tap the maples; let the captain go with Luce."

  The boys, separating into pairs, walked off in different directions.Lucien and his companion soon lighted upon the object of their search inthe same wet bottom where they had procured the _Heracleum_. It was abranching shrub, not over two feet in height, with small leaves of adeep green colour above, but whitish and woolly underneath. It is aplant well-known throughout most of the Hudson's Bay territory by thename of "Labrador tea-plant;" and is so called because the Canadianvoyageurs, and other travellers through these northern districts, oftendrink it as tea. It is one of the _Ericaceae_, or heath tribe, of thegenus _Ledum_--though it is not a true heath, as, strange to say, notrue heath is found upon the continent of America.

  There are two kinds of it known,--the "narrow-leafed" and"broad-leafed;" and the former makes the best tea. But the pretty whiteflowers of the plant are better for the purpose than the leaves ofeither variety; and these it was that were now gathered by Lucien andNorman. They require to be dried before the decoction is made; but thiscan be done in a short time over a fire;
and so in a short time it wasdone, Norman having parched them upon heated stones. Meanwhile Basiland Francois had obtained the sugar-water, and Lucien having washed hissoup-kettle clean, and once more made his boiling stones red-hot,prepared the beverage; and then it was served out in the tin cup, andall partook of it. Norman had drunk the Labrador tea before, and wasrather fond of it, but his Southern cousins did not much relish it. Itspeculiar flavour, which somewhat resembles rhubarb, was not at all tothe liking of Francois. All, however, admitted that it produced acheering effect upon their spirits; and, after drinking it, they felt inthat peculiarly happy state of mind which one experiences after a cup ofthe real "Bohea."