Moose '-Hunting in Canada. 183 



bish, you proceed to make four low walls composed of two or three 

 small suitable-sized pine logs laid one on the other, and on these 

 little low walls so constructed you raise the frame-work of the camp. 

 This consists of light thin poles, the lower ends being stuck into the 

 upper surface of the pine trees which form the walls, and the upper 

 ends leaning against and supporting each other. The next operation 

 is to strip large sheets of bark off the birch trees, and thatch 

 these poles with them to within a foot or two of the top, leaving a 

 sufficient aperture for the smoke to escape. Other poles are then 

 laid upon the sheets of birch-bark to keep them in their places. A 

 small door-way 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 ax, so that the wall shall not be incon- 

 veniently high to step over, and the hut is finished. Such a camp is 

 perfectly impervious to wind or weather, or, rather, can be made so 

 by filling up the joints and cracks between 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 center 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 English language in America. The Western 

 cattle-man, or farmer, speaks of his farm or house as his " ranche," 

 calls the inclosure into which he drives his stock a "corral," fastens 

 his horse with a "lariat," digs an "acequia" to irrigate his land, gets 

 lost in the " chapparal," instead of the bush, and uses commonly 

 many other Spanish words and expressions. No hunter or trapper 

 talks of hiding anything ; he " caches " it, and he calls the place 

 where he has stowed away a little store of powder, flour, or some of 

 the other necessaries of life, a "cache." The French word "prairie, " 

 as everybody knows, has become part and parcel of the English Ian- 



