idi 'v* ': I ,. rCANADIAN NIGHTS 



them in their places. A small doorway is left in 

 one side, and a door is constructed out of slabs of 

 wood or out of the skin of some animal. The 

 uppermost log is hewn through with an axe, so that 

 the wall shall not be inconveniently high to step 

 over, and the hut is finished. Such a camp is per- 

 fectly impervious to wind or weather, or rather can 

 be made so by filling up the joints and cracks be- 

 tween the sheets of birch bark and the interstices 

 between the pine logs with moss and dry leaves. 

 You next level off the ground inside, and on three 

 sides of the square strew it thickly with the small 

 tops of the sapin or Canada-balsam fir, for a breadth 

 of about four feet ; then take some long pliant ash 

 saplings or withy rods, and peg them down along 

 the edge of the pine tops to keep your bed or carpet 

 in its place, leaving a bare space in the centre of the 

 hut, where you make your fire. Two or three rough 

 slabs of pine to act as shelves must then be fixed 

 into the wall, a couple of portage-straps or tump- 

 lines stretched across on which to hang your clothes, 

 and the habitation is complete. 



I ought perhaps to explain what a " portage- 

 strap " and a " portage " are. Many French and 

 Spanish words have become incorporated with the 



