us food
was found barely sufficient to subsist the men in that cold climate.

The pemmican, which constitutes almost the entire diet of the Fur
Company's men in the Northwest, is prepared as follows: The buffalo
meat is cut into thin flakes, and hung up to dry in the sun or before a
slow fire; it is then pounded between two stones and reduced to a
powder; this powder is placed in a bag of the animal's hide, with the
hair on the outside; melted grease is then poured into it, and the bag
sewn up. It can be eaten raw, and many prefer it so. Mixed with a
little flour and boiled, it is a very wholesome and exceedingly
nutritious food, and will keep fresh for a long time.

I would advise all persons who travel for any considerable time through
a country where they can procure no vegetables to carry with them some
antiscorbutics, and if they can not transport desiccated or canned
vegetables, citric acid answers a good purpose, and is very portable.
When mixed with sugar and water, with a few drops of the essence of
lemon, it is difficult to distinguish it from lemonade. Wild onions are
excellent as antiscorbutics; also wild grapes and greens. An infusion
of hemlock leaves is also said to be an antidote to scurvy.

The most portable and simple preparation of subsistence that I know of,
and which is used extensively by the Mexicans and Indians, is called
"_cold flour_." It is made by parching corn, and pounding it in a
mortar to the consistency of coarse meal; a little sugar and cinnamon
added makes it quite palatable. When the traveler becomes hungry or
thirsty, a little of the flour is mixed with water and drunk. It is an
excellent article for a traveler who desires to go the greatest length
of time upon the smallest amount of transportation. It is said that
half a bushel is sufficient to subsist a man thirty days.

Persons undergoing severe labor, and driven to great extremities for
food, will derive sustenance from various sources that would never
occur to them under ordinary circumstances. In passing over the Rocky
Mountains during the winter of 1857-8, our supplies of provisions were
entirely consumed eighteen days before reaching the first settlements
in New Mexico, and we were obliged to resort to a variety of expedients
to supply the deficiency. Our poor mules were fast failing and dropping
down from exhaustion in the deep snows, and our only dependence for the
means of sustaining life was upon these starved animals