22 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [ BULL, 69 
on Champlain’s map wigwams and gardens are indicated at many 
different places about the shore of the bay. And it was said: 
. “Their dwellings are separate from each other, according to the 
land which each occupies. They are large, of a circular shape, and 
covered with thatch made of grasses or the husks of Indian corn ” 
(Champlain, (2), II, pp. 120-130.) 
Some 10 years after the preceding, the Jesuit, Pére Biard, was 
among the native tribes of New France and prepared notes on the 
customs of the people. He wrote principally of the Micmac and 
Malecite, of the eastern part of the present State of Maine and the 
adjacent provinces, and when describing their habitations said: 
“Arrived at a certain place, the first thing they do is to build a 
fire and arrange their camp, which they have finished in an hour or 
two; often in half an hour. The women go to the woods and bring 
back some poles which are stuck into the ground in a circle around 
the fire, and at the top are interlaced, in the form, of a pyramid, so 
that they come together directly over the fire, for there is the 
chimney. Upon the poles they throw some skins, matting or bark. 
At the foot of the poles, under the skins, they put their baggage. 
All the space around the fire is strewn with leaves of the fir tree, 
so they will not feel the dampness of the ground; over these leaves 
are often thrown some mats, or sealskins as soft as velvet; upon 
this they stretch themselves around the fire with their heads resting 
upon their baggage; And, what no one would believe, they are very 
warm in there around that little fire, even in the greatest rigors 
of the Winter. They do not camp except near some good water, 
and in an attractive location. In Summer the shape of their houses 
is changed; for then they are broad and long, that they may have 
more air; then they nearly always cover them with bark, or mats 
made of tender reeds, finer and more delicate than ours made of 
straw, and so skillfully woven, that when they are hung up the 
water runs along their surface without penetrating them.” (Biard, 
(Ey paw i.) ; 
And.here follows an interesting account of their ways and means 
of gathering food, with different fish and game during the changing 
seasons of the year. 
The dwellings encountered by the Pilgrims on Cape Cod, when they 
reached that shore early in November, 1620, ‘‘were made with long 
young Sapling Trees, bended and both ends stuckinto the ground: 
they were made round, like unto an Arbour . . . The houses were 
double matted, for as they were matted without, so were they within, 
with new & fairer matts. In the houses we found wooden Boules, 
Trayes & Dishes, Earthen Pots, Handbaskets made of Crab shells 
wrought together ...’”’ (Mourt, (1), p. 18.) 
