side on the lake shore bathed in the tints of the rainbow, the colors lying with unusual breadth on its wooded breast. Even the ethereal green of the bow was clearly seen above the darker verdure of the trees. Only the lower part of the bow, that which lay upon the mountain, was colored; above, the clouds were just tinged where they touched the brow of the hill, then fading away into pale gray.
Ice at table still. We Americans probably use far more ice than most people; the water for drinking is regularly iced, in many houses, until late in the autumn, when the frost cools the springs for us out of doors.
Friday, 22d.—Mushrooms are springing up by the road-side and in pasture-grounds; are not so numerous as last year, however, when the fungus tribe abounded. Mushrooms are not much eaten in our country neighborhood; people are afraid of them, and perhaps they are right. Certainly, they should never be eaten unless gathered by a person who understands them thoroughly. In France, they are not allowed to be offered for sale, I believe, until inspected by an officer appointed for the purpose. There is a good old Irish mother who supplies one or two houses in the village when they are in season, and she understands them very well.
The Indians of this part of the continent ate mushrooms. Poor creatures, they were often reduced to great extremities for food, from their want of forethought, feeding upon lichens, tripe de roche, and everything edible which grew in the forest. But mushrooms seem to have been considered by them as a great delicacy. A Chippewa, when speaking with Major Long on the subject of a future life, gave the following account of the opinions
