64 DWELLING-HOUSE. 



1825. The mean of Mr. Rae's observations for 

 latitude gave about a quarter of a mile more north- 

 ing than Mr. Simpson's. 



Our winter dwelling, though dignified, according 

 to custom, by the title of " the fort," had no de- 

 fensive works whatever, not even the stockade 

 which usually surrounds a trading post. It was 

 a simple log-house, built of trunks of trees laid 

 over one another, and morticed into the upright 

 posts of the corners, doorways, and windows. The 

 roof had considerable slope : it was formed of 

 slender trees laid closely side by side, resting at 

 the top on a ridge pole, and covered with loam 

 to the depth of six or eight inches. A man, 

 standing on the outside, could touch the eaves 

 with his hand. Well-tempered loam or clay was 

 beat into the spaces left in the walls by the 

 roundness of the logs, both on the outside and 

 inside, and as this cracked in drying, it was re- 

 peatedly coated over, for the space of two months, 

 with a thin mixture of clay and water, until the 

 walls became nearly impervious to the air. The 

 rooms were floored and ceiled with deal. Massive 

 struck res of boulder stones and loam formed the 

 chimney-stacks, and the capacious fire-places re- 

 quired three or four armfuls of fire- wood, cut into 

 billets three feet long, to fill them. 



The building was forty feet long by fourteen 



