[205] The wappato (_sagittaria latifolia_) was an important article of food for the Northwest Indians. See descriptions of its gathering and preparation in _Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition_, index. The flower of the bitterroot (_Lewisia rediviva_) has been chosen as the Montana state flower; it gives name both to the river and to a range of mountains in that state. The biscuit root was probably what is known as the white-apple or prairie potato (_Psoralea esculenta_), a food-root widely spread in North America. See our volume xxi, p. 248, note 62.—ED. [206] On the camas see our volume xxi, p. 247, note 61.—ED. [207] _Evernia vulpina_, still used for food by the Kutenai.—ED. [208] Kootenai Lake, in eastern British Columbia, is an enlargement of the river of the same name, seventy-five miles in length and with a width of from two to five miles. The river enters at the southern end, and leaves the lake about midway of its length opposite Pilot Bay.—ED. [209] Edward Berland, a Hudson’s Bay Company employe, aided Sir George Simpson on his voyage around the world in 1841. See his curious autograph reproduced in Simpson, _Narrative_, i, p. 125.—ED. [210] Known as Kootenai River Traverse, located in the neighborhood of the present Fort Steele. See Simpson’s description of its passage in his _Narrative_, pp. 137, 138.—ED. [211] De Smet is passing up the Kootenai River in its course through Montana, following the line of the present Great Northern Railway, which leaves Kootenai valley at Jennings, where the river coming from the north makes an abrupt turn to the west. A recently-built branch of this railway extends from Jennings along the upper Kootenai into British Columbia.—ED. [212] Probably the Yaac River, a considerable mountain tributary of the Kootenai, in northwestern Montana. De Smet may, however, refer to some small stream that enters the main river near Kootenai Falls, some ten or twelve miles above the embouchment of the Yaac. David Thompson called the Kootenai, McGillivray River, in honor of the Hon. William McGillivray, one of the North West Company partners.—ED. [213] De Smet was an observant traveller. The mineral wealth of Flathead County, Montana (through which he was passing), has not yet been developed; but galena ore bearing both lead and silver has been found, and considerable quantities of coal and oil are known to exist in that district. See _Report_ of Great Northern Railway, 1902.—ED.