( i2 9 ) 



thing you may ftand in need of for five or fijc 

 months together, and that through ways fome- 

 times fo rugged and hideous, that it is even fcarce 

 poflible to conceive how the very wild beafts them- 

 felves are able to pafs them ; and were you not to 

 have the foreright to provide yourfelfin pieces of 

 bark, you muft t:e deftitute of all means of fhelter- 

 ing yourfelf from the rain and fnow, during your 

 journey* After arriving at the end of it, you find 

 yourfelf a little better accommodated, that is to fay, 

 you are not eternally expofed to all the injuries of 

 the air and weather. 



Every body falls to work for this purpofe, and 

 the miffionaries themfelves, who in the beginning 

 had no body to wait on them, and for whom the 

 Indians had no manner of confideration, were no 

 more fpared than the reft, and had not fo much as 

 a cabbin allowed them to themfelves, but were o- 

 bliged to take up their lodgings in the firft that 

 made them welcome. Thefe cabbins among moft 

 of the Algonquin nations are nearly in the form of 

 our ice-houfes, round and terminating in a cone* 

 Thefe had no other fupports than poles fixed in the 

 fnow, and tied together by the ends, and which 

 were covered with pieces of bark very ill joined, 

 and fecured fo that the wind eafily found admit- 

 tance on ali fides. 



The building of fuch a houfe employs half an 

 hour at moft, fome branches of pine ferving as 

 fnattrefles, which are alfo the only beds in thofe 

 palaces. There is one, and almoft the only con- 

 veniency which attends them, and that is that yoii 

 may change them every day : they likewife collect 

 the fnow quite round them, which forms a kind of 

 parapet, which has its ufe, as it is impenetrable to 



Vol. IL K the 



