562 INDUSTRIAL USES OF WOOD. 



These modes of building may be distinguished by the 

 nature of the walls erected. Thus, block-houses, or log- 

 huts, have entirely wooden walls ; the wooden frame-work 

 sometimes employed for the walls of houses may be filled 

 in with planks, bricks, or lath and plaster ; the walls of 

 other s perstructures are built of mud, stone, or brick 

 masonry. 



In the case of log-huts, the walls of the whole building are 

 made of round logs or squared balks, the necessary firmness 

 of the building being secured by dovetailing their ends into 

 beams placed at right angles to them. Log-huts are still 

 used in the Alps, and in countries like America or Australia, 

 where timber is still abundant. 



A higher class of houses is built with a complete wooden 

 framework of beams and scantling, dovetailed and riveted 

 together, and the interspaces are covered afterwards with 

 planks, or filled-in with lath and plaster, or with rubble- or 

 brick-masonry. Houses with a wooden framework filled-in 

 with masonry are termed half-timbered. In the Middle 

 Ages, owing to the abundance of wood nearly all houses and 

 even large edifices were built with a wooden framework ; 

 at present, this mode of construction is limited to woodland 

 districts and especially to Switzerland and the Black Forest. 

 Its use is becoming more restricted in Europe as com- 

 munications improve and it is being replaced by stone- or 

 brick-masonry. 



[In countries like Japan or Assam, where earthquakes are 

 frequent, this mode of building with wooden framework is 

 far safer than masonry, the interspaces between the wood 

 being filled-in with reeds or bamboos and plastered over. In 

 the event of an earthquake, the whole house holds together 

 and the danger of falling masonry is avoided. Frequently 

 owing to the malarious nature of the country in Assam, houses 

 are raised above the ground on piles. Tr.] 



Brick- or stone-masonry is the best material for the walls 

 of buildings, and at present is most common [though in 

 fairly dry countries, such as the N.W. of India, walls and 

 even roofs are made frequently of mud. Tr.] In all these 

 cases the minimum amount of wood is used, and chiefly for 



