Volume 1

172 BIRDS—MAPLES—BOIS TORS—EXPRESS IN,
retire to the hollow trees at night. On the 8th it rained
for four hours ; fresh meat thawed. On the 9th we saw the
first spring bird. Bald eagles \Haliaetos leucocephalus] we
have seen the whole winter, but now they are numerous,
feeding on the buffalo carcasses. My men begin to take
raccoons, which are very lean.
Mar. nth. Clear, mild weather ; wind S. E.; snow melting
fast. I sent four men, with two kegs of high wine
each, to Portage la Prairie.
On the 12th we saw an outarde
[wild goose, Bernicla canadensis] on the ice ;
and another
swimming, where the melting of the snow had caused the
ice to rise and leave an open space. I also saw a swan.
The small bastard maple [box-elder or ash-leafed maple,
Negundo aceroides] begins to run. The Canadians call this
tree erable a gigoire. The sap yields a fine white sugar,
but it is not so sweet as that of the real maple [Acer saccharinuni],
and more is required to make the same quantity
of sugar. There is also an abundance of bois tors [twisted
wood, the so-called climbing bitter-sweet, Celastriis scandens],
a short shrub that winds up the stocks of larger
trees ; the wood is soft and spongy, with a thick bark, which
is often eaten by the natives in time of famine. There
are two species of this shrub ; one grows much thicker than
the other, and is very sweet, but too astringent. The
smaller kind is more insipid and less unwholesome. They
cut it into pieces and boil it a long time, when the bark is
peeled off and eaten without any further preparation. I
have subsisted upon this bark for days, but always found
my weakness increased upon me.
Mar. 14th. My two men that I sent to Portage la Prairie
Feb. 1st, arrived with Messrs. Chaboillez [senior or junior?]
and John Cameron.
They bring the Northwest Company's
northern winter express, which will proceed with all dispatch
to Grand Portage ;
there to be put on board the vessel and
conveyed to Sault Ste. Marie, where it arrives about June 1st,
and sometimes in May, according to the state of the ice in
Lake Superior. It generally starts from Athabasca Jan. ist.