Teal.
Teal.[227] Like the Mallard, they are found in considerable numbers near the sea-coast; but are more plentiful in the interior parts of the country, and fly in such large flocks that I have often killed twelve or fourteen at one shot, and have seen both English and Indians kill a much greater number. At their first arrival they are but poor, though generally esteemed good eating. This diminutive Duck is by far the most prolific of any I know that resorts to Hudson's Bay; for I have often seen the old ones swimming at the head of seventeen young, when not much larger than walnuts. This bird remains in those parts as long as the season will permit; for in the year one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five, in my passage from Cumberland House to York Fort, I, as well as my Indian companions, killed them in the rivers we passed through as late as the twentieth of October. At those times they are entirely involved in fat, but delicately white, and may truly be called a great luxury.
Besides the birds already described, there is a great variety of others, both of land and water fowl, that frequent those parts in Summer; but these came not so immediately under my inspection as those I have already described.
{449} Of the Vegetable Productions.
The vegetable productions of this country by no means engaged my attention so much as the animal creation; which is the less to be wondered at, as so few of them are useful for the support of man. Yet I will endeavour to enumerate as many of them as I think are worth notice.
Gooseberries.
The Gooseberries[228] thrive best in stony and rocky ground, which lies open and much exposed to the Sun. But in those situations few of the bushes grow to any height, and spread along the ground like vines. The fruit is always most plentiful and the finest on the under-side of the branches, probably owing to the reflected heat from the stones and gravel, and from being sheltered from all cold winds and fog by the leaves. I never saw more than one species of Gooseberry in any part of Hudson's Bay, which is the red one. When green, they make excellent pies or tarts; and when ripe are very pleasant eating, though by no means so large as those produced in England.
Cranberries.