1770 CANALS AND HOUSES 379 



am inclined to believe this, as I remember a dead buffalo 

 lying in one of the principal thoroughfares for more than a 

 week, until it was at last carried away by a flood. 



The houses are in general large and well built, and con- 

 veniently enough contrived for the climate. The greater part 

 of the ground-floor is always laid out in one large room with 

 a door to the street and another to the yard, both which 

 generally stand open. Below is the ground -plan of one. 



In this plan a is the front door, 6, the back door, c, a room 

 where the master of the house does his business, d, a court 

 to give light to the rooms as well as increase the draught, 

 and e, the stairs for going upstairs, where the rooms are 

 generally large though few in number. Such, in general, 

 are their town houses, differing in size very much, and some- 

 times in shape ; the principles, however, on which they are 

 built are universally the same, two doors opposite each other, 

 and one or more courts between them to cause a draught, 

 which they do in an eminent degree, as well as dividing the 

 room into alcoves, in one of which the family dine, while 

 the female slaves (who on no occasion sit anywhere else) 

 work in another. Showy, however, as these large rooms are 

 to the stranger on his first seeing them, he is soon sensible 

 of the small amount of furniture which is universal in all 

 of them. The same quantity of furniture is sufficient for 

 them as is necessary for our smaller rooms in Europe, as in 

 those we entertain fully as many guests at a time as is ever 

 done in these ; consequently the chairs, which are spread at 

 even distances from each other, are not very easily collected 

 into a circle if four or five visitors arrive at once. 



Public buildings they have several, most of them old and 

 executed in rather a clumsy taste. Their new church, how- 



