Part way up we came to a high cliff and in its face were niches . . . and in some of them we found balls of a glistening substance looking like pieces of variegated candy . . . it was evidently food of some sort, and we found it sweet but sickish, and those who were hungry, making a good meal of it, were a little troubled with nausea afterwards.
-- from the diary of a lost prospector
in the Gold Rush of 1849
Nausea? Little wonder. The glistening balls mistaken for a snack that day in Nevada were later...
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