Pemmican is a mixture of about five-ninths of pounded dry meat to four-ninths of melted or boiled grease; it is put into a skin bag or tin can whilst warm and soft.  The grease ought not to be very warm, when poured on the dry meat.  Wild berries are sometimes added.  The skin bags for the pemmican should be shaped like pillow (not bolster) cases, for the convenience of packing on horseback.  The pemmican is chopped out with an axe, when required.

I do not know if it can be bought anywhere in England.  It was usually prepared in the government yards at Deptford, when made for the Arctic Expeditions.  It is largely used in the Hudson’s Bay territory.  A traveller who desired to furnish himself with pemmican might procure his supplies from thence.

Pemmican, as made in England.—­Sir John Richardson describes, in his Narrative, the preparation of the pemmican that he took with him in his last journey.  The following is a resume of what he says:—­The meat used was round of beef; the fat and membranous parts were pared away; it was then cut into thin slices, which were dried in a malt-kiln, over an oak-wood fire, till they were quite dry and friable.  Then they were ground in a malt mill; after this process the powder resembled finely-grated meal.  It was next mixed with nearly an equal weight of melted beef, suet, or lard; and the plain pemmican was made.  Part of the pemmican was mixed with Zante currants, and another part with sugar.  Both of these mixtures were much liked, especially the latter.  The pemmican, when complete, cost at the rate of 1x. u 1/2 d. per pound, but then the meat was only 6 3/4 d. per pound; it is dearer now.  The meat lost more than three-quarters of its weight in drying.  He had 17,424 lbs. of pemmican in all; it was made from—­fresh beef, 35,641 lbs; lard9 lbs.; currants3 lbs.; and sugar lbs.

Pemmican, as made in the Prairie.—­Mr. Ballantyne, who was in the service of the Hudson’s Bay Company, gives the following account:—­“Having shot a buffalo, the hunters cut lumps of his flesh, and slitting it up into flakes or layers, hang it up in the sun, or before a slow fire, to dry; and the fat can be dried as well as the lean.  In this state, it is often made into packs, and sent about the country, to be consumed as dried meat (it is often best relished raw, for, when grilled without fat, it burns and becomes ashy); but when pemmican is wanted, it has to go through another process.  When dry, the meat is pounded between two stones till it is broken into small pieces:  these are put into a bag made of the animal’s hide, with the hair on the outside, and well mixed with melted grease; the top of the bag is then sewn up, and the pemmican allowed to cool.  In this state it may be eaten uncooked; but the men who subsist on it when travelling, mix it with a little flour and water, and then boil it—­in which state it is know throughout the country by the elegant name of robbiboo.  Pemmican is good wholesome food; will keep fresh for a great length of time; and, were it not for its unprepossessing appearance, and a good many buffalo hairs mixed with it, through the carelessness of the hunters, would be very palatable.  After a time, however, one becomes accustomed to these little peculiarities.”