FOREST LIFE. 147 



only. These are so closely put together that common short shin- 

 gles may be laid on them quite as well as if the roof were board- 

 ed — a plan frequently adopted in new country settlements, where 

 boards are not to be obtained. This building is divided by a par- 

 tition into two apartments, in one of which, perhaps in the cor- 

 ner, a huge fire-place is constructed of rude stones, to the height 

 of six or seven feet, where a large wooden mantle-bar is thrown 

 across, from which point, with small split sticks, straw, and clay, 

 it is topped out in the fashion of a chimney. This is the cook, 

 eating, sitting, bar, and often the card-playing room, where team- 

 sters, in crowded numbers, enjoy all the luxuries which their cir- 

 cumstances will admit, one of which is a most excellent appetite. 

 The other room is strictly appropriated to sleeping purposes, with 

 births rudely constructed, in tiers one above the other (with a 

 space between the feet and fire), similar to the accommodations 

 on board a vessel, so that in a space seven by thirty ieet sixty 

 men may be accommodated with lodging. Such a number of 

 men, crowded into an area of so scanty dimensions, might be sup- 

 posed to suffer inconvenience from confined and impure air ; but 

 the ready access which the twinkling star-light and sparkling 

 hoar-frost find to the apartment through the numerous unstopped 

 crevices warrants a more agreeable conclusion. 



Thus sociably, quietly, and snugly ensconced within that rude 

 shelter, enveloped and surrounded with interminable forests, the 

 hours of darkness are passed, while without, the piercing cold 

 causes even the nestling trees to quake as the wings of the wild 

 winter night labor with the furious snow-storm. 



Sometimes a portion of the route lays across large lakes, where 

 the bleak winds pierce, or the dense snow-storm thickens the at- 

 mosphere, and obliterates alike the path and the shore from sight. 

 I have known teamsters, while crossing these icy regions, sud- 

 denly overtaken by snow-stoiTus so dense as to circumscribe the 

 compass of vision to thirty rods, and to be compelled to wandcy 



