On summer nights, fish can be caught without a hook by building a fire on the bank of a lake or river. Fish tend to follow the shoreline and are attracted by the light. Tie a noose on the end of a pole, pass the loop very gently over the fish until it is behind the first set of fins, and then give a slight jerk to tighten it. During their annual run, salmon are so easy to catch in places that you don’t even need a snare. Just bend down and scoop them up.
Eating duck, goose, and gull eggs is a good way to fend off starvation in spring and summer. All are edible.
Edible Plants
It is useful to be acquainted with edible plants, even when survival is not at stake. Here is a little list:
Canada dogwood: Scarlet fruit. The Indians used it to make pudding.
Labrador tea: Found especially in bogs.
Sap of the quaking aspen: It is collected in spring by scoring an aspen’s trunk after removing the bark and is then dried in the sun. The sap, which keeps well, was used by the Indians to make flour for a kind of bread. The taste is quite sweet and not unpleasant.
Black crowberry: In Siberia, the juice of the crowberry is mixed with water. The Even people add it to fish and reindeer meat as a condiment.
Lichen: When the larder is empty it can be boiled in soup or made into bread.
Wild rhubarb: It is edible raw or can be boiled into a compote. It is excellent and chock full of vitamins.
Root of the frog lily: Rich in starch, this plant is highly edible.
