Thursday (Wednesday) January 22nd. 1806.
The party sent for the meat this morning returned with it in
the Evening; it was in very inferior order, in short the animals
were poor. Reubin Fields also remained with the other hunters
Shannon & Labuish our late supply of salt is out. we have
not yet heared a sentence from the other two parties of hunter's
who are below us towards Point Adams and the Praries.
There are three species of fern in this neighbourhood the
root one of which the nat[i]ves eat;[3]
this grows very abundant
in the open uplands and praries where the latter are not sandy
and consist of teep loose rich black lome. the root is horizontal
sometimes a little deverging or obliquely descending,
frequently dividing itself as it procedes into two equal branches
and shooting up a number of stems; it lies about 4 Inc[h]es
beneath the surface of the earth. the root is celindric, with
few or no radicles and from the size of a goose quill to that
of a man's finger; the center of the root is divided into two
equal parts by a strong flat & white ligament like a piece of
thin tape on either side of this there is a white substance
which when the root is roasted in the embers is much like
wheat dough and not very unlike it in flavour, though it has
also a pungency which becomes more visible after you have
chewed it some little time; this pungency was disagreeable to
me, but the natives eat it very voraciously and I have no
doubt but it is a very nutricious food. the bark of the root
is black, somewhat rough, thin and brittle, it easily seperates
in flakes from the part which is eaten as dose also the internal
liggament. this root perennil. in rich lands this plant rises
to the hight of from 4 to five feet. the stem is smooth celindric,
slightly groved on one side erect about half it's hight
on the 2 first branches thence reclining backwards from the
grooved side; it puts forth it's branches which are in reallyty
long footstalks by pares from one side only and near the edges
of the groove, these larger footstalks are also grooved cilindric
and gradually tapering towards the extremity, puting forth
alternate footstalks on either side of the grove near it's edge;
these lesser footstalks the same in form as the first put forth
from forty to fifty alternate pinate leaves which are sessile,
horizontal, multipartite for half their length from the point
of insertion and terminating in a long shaped apex, and are
also revolute with the upper disk smoth and the lower slightly
cottanny. these alternate leaves after proceeding half the
length of the footstalks cease to be partite and assume the
tongue like form altogether, this plant produces no flower or
fruit whatever, is of a fine green colour in summer and a beautifull
plant, the top is annual and is of course dead at present.
