and pressing demands on our time made us abandon the project.

A short distance above Astoria, the oak and ash are plentiful, but
neither of these is of much value or beauty.

From the middle of June to the middle of October, we had abundance of
wild fruit; first, strawberries, almost white, small but very sweet;
then raspberries, both red and orange color. These grow on a bush
sometimes twelve feet in height: they are not sweet, but of a large
size.

The months of July and August furnish a small berry of an agreeable,
slightly acid flavor; this berry grows on a slender bush of some eight
to nine feet high, with small round leaves; they are in size like a wild
cherry: some are blue, while others are of a cherry red: the last being
smaller; they have no pits, or stones in them, but seeds, such as are to
be seen in currants.

I noticed in the month of August another berry growing in bunches or
grapes like the currant, on a bush very similar to the currant bush: the
leaves of this shrub resemble those of the laurel: they are very thick
and always green. The fruit is oblong, and disposed in two rows on the
stem: the extremity of the berry is open, having a little speck or tuft
like that of an apple. It is not of a particularly fine flavor, but it
is wholesome, and one may eat a quantity of it, without inconvenience.
The natives make great use of it; they prepare it for the winter by
bruising and drying it; after which it is moulded into cakes according
to fancy, and laid up for use. There is also a great abundance of
cranberries, which proved very useful as an antiscorbutic.

We found also the whortleberry, chokecherries, gooseberries, and black
currants with wild crab-apples: these last grow in clusters, are of
small size and very tart. On the upper part of the river are found
blackberries, hazel-nuts, acorns, &c. The country also possesses a great
variety of nutritive roots: the natives make great use of those which
have the virtue of curing or preventing the scurvy. We ate freely of
them with the same intention, and with the same success. One of these
roots, which much resembles a small onion, serves them, in some sort, in
place of cheese. Having gathered a sufficient quantity, they bake them
with red-hot stones, until the steam ceases to ooze from the layer of
grass and earth with which the roots are covered; then they pound them
into a paste, and make the paste into loaves, of five or six pounds
weight: the taste