24 The Forests of America 



warm, but animals which furnished both food 

 and clothing. 



In the great American forests there were many 

 fur-bearing animals, such as beavers, otters, 

 minks, and foxes. The Indians trapped these 

 wild creatures, trading the furs to the white men. 

 They did not trade for money in those days, but 

 for glass beads and other trinkets of which the 

 Indians were very fond. Trading posts, where 

 the whites could meet the red men, were built 

 in various convenient places, usually by the side 

 of some lake or river. 



Around the trading posts small settlements 

 gradually sprang up. Then lumber was needed 

 for building houses and boats. The larger tim- 

 bers were hewed and squared with broadaxes, 

 but the boards and planks were made by "pit- 

 sawing." The log, when squared, was placed 

 over a pit in the ground, or raised several feet 

 on a trestle, and a line was marked on it with 

 chalk for the saw to follow. One man stood on top 

 of the log, pulling the saw up; the other, in the 

 pit below, pulled it downward. This was "pit- 

 sawing" or "whipsawing," a very slow and la- 

 borious method, but the best known then. 



