But even in northern latitudes the American coast is not without vegetation. Grass takes the place of trees. At Fort Yukon, in latitude 67°, there is “a thin, wiry grass.” Navigators notice the contrast between the opposite coasts of the two continents. Kotzebue, while in Behring Strait, where the two approach each other, was struck by black, mossy rocks frowning with snow and icicles on the Asiatic side, while on the American side “even the summits of the highest mountains were free from snow,” and “the coast was covered with a green carpet.”[112] But the contrast with the Atlantic coast of the continent is hardly less. The northern limit of trees is full seven degrees higher in Russian America than in Labrador. In point of fact, on the Atlantic coast, in latitude 57° 58´, which is nearly that of Sitka, there are no trees. All this is most suggestive.
Next after trees, early navigators speak oftenest of berries, which they found in profusion. Not a sailor lands who does not find them. Cook reports “a variety of berries” at Norton Sound, and “great quantities” at Oonalaska.[113] Portlock finds at Prince William Sound “fruit-bushes in great abundance, such as bilberry-bushes, raspberry-bushes, strawberries, elder-berry-bushes, and currant-bushes, red and black,” and “any quantity of the berries might be gathered for a winter’s stock.”[114] Meares saw there “a few black-currant-bushes.”[115] Billings finds at Kadiak “several species of berries, with currants and raspberries in abundance, the latter white, but extremely large, being bigger than any mulberry he had ever seen.”[116] Langsdorff notes most of these at Oonalaska, with cranberries and whortleberries besides.[117] Belcher reports at Garden Island “strawberries, whortleberries, blaeberries, pigeon-berries, and a small cranberry, in tolerable profusion, without going in search of them.”[118] These I quote precisely, and in the order of time.
Next to berries were plants for food; and these were in constant abundance. Behring, on landing at the Shumagin Islands, observed the natives “to eat roots which they dug out of the ground, and scarce shaked off the earth before they eat them.”[119] Cook reports at Oonalaska “a great variety of plants, several of them such as we find in Europe and in other parts of America, particularly in Newfoundland: … all these we found very palatable, dressed either in soups or in salads.”[120] La Pérouse, who landed in latitude 58° 37´, finds a French bill of fare, including celery, chicory, sorrel, and “almost all the pot-herbs of the meadows and mountains of France,” besides “several kinds of grass suitable for forage.” Every day and each meal the ship’s kettle was filled with these supplies, and all ate them in soups, ragouts, and salads, much to the benefit of their health.[121] Portlock mentions at Port Etches, besides “fine water-cresses,” “just above the beach, between the bay and the lake, a piece of wild wheat, about two hundred yards long and five yards wide, growing at least two feet high,” which, “with proper care, might certainly be made an useful article of food”; and at Cook’s Inlet he reports “ginseng and snakeroot.”[122] Meares reports at the latter place “inexhaustible plenty” of ginseng, and at Prince William Sound “snakeroot and ginseng, some of which the natives have always with them as a medicine.” He adds: “The ginseng of this part of America is far preferable to that of the eastern side.”[123] Billings finds at Kadiak “ginseng, wild onions, and the edible roots of Kamtchatka,” and then again at Prince William Sound “plenty of ginseng and some snakeroot.”[124] Vancouver finds at Port Mulgrave “wild vegetables in great abundance.”[125] Langsdorff adds to the list, at Oonalaska, “that sweet plant, the Siberian parsnip.”[126] These, too, I quote precisely, and in the order of time.