The low-bush cranberries grow on a slender, trailing plant; the blossom is
very pretty, and the fruit about the size of a common gooseberry, of a
dark purplish red, very smooth and shining; the seeds are minute, and lie
in the white pulp within the skin: this berry is not nice till it is
cooked with sugar. There is a large cranberry marsh somewhere at the back
of Kingston, where vast quantities grow. I heard a young gentleman, say
that he passed over this tract when he was hunting, while the snow was on
the ground, and that the red juice of the dropped berries dyed the snow
crimson beneath his feet. The Indians go every year to a small lake called
Buckhorn Lake, many miles up the river Otonabee, in the Upper Province, to
gather cranberries; which they sell to the settlers in the towns and
villages, or trade away for pork, flour, and clothes. The cranberries,
when spread out on a dry floor, will keep fresh and good for a long time.
Great quantities of cranberries are brought to England from Russia,
Norway, and Lapland, in barrels, or large earthen jars, filled with spring
water; but the fruit thus roughly preserved must be drained, and washed
many times, and stirred with sugar, before it can be put into tarts, or it
would be salt and bitter.
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