202 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 



four or five stories high, whereas "the heavier frame very rarely 

 reaches three stories. 



In the balloon-frame, the sills, instead of being eight, ten, 

 or twelve inches square, are only two or three inches by six or 

 eight ; and they rest on numerous studs, which again rest on 

 the ground. The sills are nailed together at the corners. The 

 studs are not morticed into the sills, but nailed upon them. 

 The lower joists stand upon the sills, and the upper ones rest 

 upon an inch board " let into " the studs to which they are 

 nailed. On the top of the studs is no heavy plate, but only a 

 board. At the corners two studs are put side by side. Each 

 stud is hoisted to its place separately, so there is no " raising." 

 Wooden houses are all covered with shingles. White pine, 

 imported from the Eastern States, is used to a considerable 

 extent for the frames and casings of doors and windows, and 

 for other inside-work ; and nearly all the doors and window- 

 sashes are imported ready made. 



Nine-tenths of the houses in the State are of wood ; the 

 others are of brick and adobes. Stone houses are veiy rare. 

 Brick buildings are numerous in the business streets of the 

 cities and towns. Every town of note has its fire-proof brick 

 stores, with iron doors and window-shutters, and its roof of 

 brick laid in mortar. The bricks are made in this -State, and 

 the lime is burned here. Brick buildings not constructed to 

 be fire-proof, have shingled roofs. There are a few buildings 

 with fronts of granite, which for one house was brought from 

 China, and that for others from the Eastern States. 



Stone houses are very rare in California : it would almost be 

 possible to count all of them on the fingers. Nearly all the 

 dwellings in the counties bordering on the coast, from Mon- 

 terey 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. 



144. Turpentine, etc. When the exportation of rosin 

 and turpentine from North Carolina was arrested by the civil 



