TEE BACK SETTLER. 79 



instalments), he proceeds to build himself a log house about 

 18 feet by 20 feet, which he roofs with split pine or cedar. 

 Externally these log huts are of the roughest description, 

 no tool being laid upon them but the axe. Internally 

 however, when the good woman is tidy, they are comfort- 

 able enough. The back settler, though content with a 

 log hut for himself, puts up a more pretentious building 

 for his hay and his cattle. His barn is generally built of 

 boards hauled from the nea'rest saw-mill, and roofed either 

 with shingles made by his own hands, or with spruce bark. 

 These buildings are situated in the centre of an open 

 space in the forest, from which it is fenced off by the half- 

 burnt poles arranged in what is commonly called a " rip- 

 gut fence." The crops, potatoes, oats, hay, and buck- 

 wheat, grow in patches amongst the black, charred 

 stumps, and grow so well, too, as almost to hide the 

 latter, though they are two feet in height. Outside 

 the fence the back settler's stock roam about the neigh- 

 bouring forest, where I am afraid most of his leisure time 

 is taken up in hunting for them. But, indeed, his leisure 

 moments must be few, for a back settler has to turn his 

 hand to everything ; he must be his own carpenter, his 

 own blacksmith, &c., &c. There is no division of labour 

 in the backwoods. The man and woman of the house do 

 everything. 



The knowing old settler never breaks his back in 

 tearing green stumps out by the roots. His modus 

 operandi is somewhat as follows; in winter, when he has 

 the time to spare, he chops a few acres of forest, hauling 

 off the soft wood for logs, fence rails, &c., and the hard 

 wood for firing. The waste wood and branches he makes 



