CANADIAN HOUSES. 289 



18 inches of it to make 1 inch of water, and it shakes 

 off the clothes like dust, leaving them perfectly dry. I 

 have often and often in the extreme depth of winter slept 

 in the forest rolled up in an ordinary blanket, with my 

 feet to the fire, and no covering of any sort over my head. 

 This I have done and seen others do hundreds of times 

 without any bad result, but I confess I should not like to 

 try it at home. 



As regards indoor life in Canada people there suffer 

 much less from cold than we do at home. I cannot imagine 

 anything more thoroughly uncomfortable than the ordinary 

 English house on a cold winter's day. Windy halls and 

 passages, drafty rooms, and the fire heat all going up the 

 chimneys ; the inmates hanging over the hearth with one 

 side warm and the other cold, coughing, sneezing, blowing 

 their noses, rubbing their hands, and evincing distress in 

 various other ways. There is none of this in Canada. We 

 have much to learn from the Canadians in the art of house- 

 warming both as regards public buildings and private 

 residences. Indeed Canadians often go a little too far in 

 the opposite extreme, and instead of an even tempera- 

 ture of 60 they keep the steam, up to 70 in their houses, 

 which I believe is injurious to their health. Sitting in one 

 of these warm rooms in the depth of winter, with the bright 

 sun shining through the windows, one can hardly realise 

 the fact that the mercury is at zero outside. The ordinary 

 settler's house in Canada is built of wood from top to bottom 

 with an inner and an outer sheeting of boards, between 

 which there is a vacant space. Often between the boards 

 there is a sheeting of birch bark. Frequently a verandah 

 runs either partly or altogether round the house, which 



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