322 EESOUECES OF CALIFOENIA. 



rey southward, are made of adobes, or sun-dried bricks ; but 

 most of the houses built of late, and all the elegant structures, 

 are of wood or brick. 



When an adobe house is to be built, the adobes are made 

 very near the place, for they are too heavy to be hauled far. 

 The earth to make adobes should be a sandy or gravelly clay, 

 which will not crack in drying. A pure loam or pure clay 

 will not do. The material having been found, it is dug up, 

 and mixed with water and some straw, until it makes a thick 

 mud. Not far from the pit the earth is levelled off, as a yard 

 where the adobes are to be dried. The adobe is from three 

 to six inches thick, from ten to twenty inches wide, and from 

 a foot to two feet long. The mould is made of the size which 

 the adobes are to have, without top or bottom. It is placed 

 on the ground ; the mud is thrown in, until the mould is filled ; 

 the top is scraped off level with a board ; and the mould is 

 lifted up, and moved to another place. The mud must be so 

 thick, that it will retain its shape after the mould is removed. 

 In twenty-four hours the adobe is so hard, that it will stand 

 on one side, and in three or four days it is dry enough to be 

 used for building. Its sides are rough and its corners broken, 

 but it serves to make a house. Adobe walls are often made 

 three feet thick, rarely less than a foot and a half The mortar 

 used is of the same mud of which the adobes were made. The 

 walls are usually protected by wide eaves, and sometimes the 

 roof projects six or eight feet, so as to make a corridor running 

 entirely round the house. If the adobes be exposed to the 

 rain, they are soon washed down. The walls have a founda- 

 tion of stone laid about eight inches high on the surface of the 

 ground. 



In many of the adobe houses there is no floor save the bare 

 earth. These dwellings are very cool in summer and w^arm in 

 winter ; and in old times, when the work was all done by In- 

 dians, they were cheap, but now it costs more to build a neat 

 house of adobes than of wood. Many of the old adobe houses 

 are still covered with the tiles baked by the Mexicans ; those 



