Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Pemmican \Pem"mi*can\, n.
   A treatise of much thought in little compass.

Pemmican \Pem"mi*can\, n. [Written also pemican.]
   1. Among the North American Indians, meat cut in thin slices,
      divested of fat, and dried in the sun.

            Then on pemican they feasted.         --Longfellow.

   2. Meat, without the fat, cut in thin slices, dried in the
      sun, pounded, then mixed with melted fat and sometimes
      dried fruit, and compressed into cakes or in bags. It
      contains much nutriment in small compass, and is of great
      use in long voyages of exploration.

Source : WordNet®

pemmican
     n : lean dried meat pounded fine and mixed with melted fat; used
         especially by North American Indians [syn: {pemican}]