138 Geological Gleanings. 



house to the water ; this passage was about fourteen inches square, 

 as neatly excavated as a ditcher could have made it with a spade ; 

 it was from twenty-five to thirty feet long, following the scope of 

 the bank, and ending some twp or three feet under the water. 

 The branches were laid with their butts uppermost, and formed a 

 complete thatching to the house, nearly weather-proof. The 

 house itself was a vertical excavation into the bank, cylindrical 

 in form and about three and a half feet in diameter; the slope of 

 the bank, where it was cut, gave it the figure of a section of a 

 cylinder of about four feet high on the side of the bank, and the 

 height of the passage to the river, on the other, about fourteen 

 inches. The bottom and walls of this room were smooth and 

 hard as though they had been pressed or beaten, but not plastered. 

 The circle was apparently perfect in form. I should have said, it 

 was rather more than halfway up the bank. Prevost said that 

 the house was unfinished, and that, before winter, the whole in- 

 terior earth and brush of the sides and roof would have been neatly 

 plastered with clay so as to render it entirely weather-proof. The 

 quantity of cotton-wood branches and saplings used in this structure 

 was enormous ; I suspect the measurement would have been three 

 cords, or as many wagon loads, and so closely impacted that it 

 was only after considerable labor that a breach was made. On 

 the bank above was the area of stump-land where they had felled 

 their timber, taking what was suitable from the most convenient 

 distance. The large block presented this evening was cut from 

 the largest log felled ; the branches only were taken, leaving the 

 trunk where it fell. Small saplings were taken entire. The smaller 

 piece, which is cut at both ends, was the butt of a bough or sap- 

 ling, which, in their attempt to drag to the bank, had become 

 wedged among a clump of bushes in such a manner that they 

 could not back it out again, owing to the resistance of the branches 

 on the ground and of other bushes, so, like the sailor who throws 

 overboard a portion of his cargo to enable him to save the rest, 

 they cut off this piece that they might steer clear of the difficulty 

 with the remnant of their treasure. The chips are from the larger 

 specimen ; in cutting them out they must work horizontally 

 around the trunk, and when they have cut two grooves at the 

 proper distance apart' they take hold of the isolated portion with 

 their teeth, and split off portions vertically, and so in succession 

 split off chips until they have girdled the tree ; a second course 

 is then removed from the bottom of this, and so on diminishing 



