EXTENT OF THE TOWN PLAN OF THE DWELLINGS. 515 
The walk from the southern extremity of the town, to the 
northern, occupied half an hour, which may be taken for a distance 
of at least a mile and a half ; and, in an etistward direction, the length 
was above two miles. The town, on approaching it from any part of 
the surrounding plains, appeared to be formed of an innumerable 
collection of houses contiguous to each other ; and it was only from 
a considerable eminence that the great quantity of intervening vacant 
space and its irregular plan, were very observable in a single view. 
The business of building the houses, as well as that of keeping 
them in order, is a duty which, in this nation, custom has allotted to 
the women only ; and I was always assured, that every part was the 
work of their hands ; although I never had any opportunity of 
seeing the construction of one of these buildings in its progress. 
The spot of ground appropriated to each dwelling was in general 
between forty and sixty feet in diameter, and in every case was enclosed 
by a strong fence. This area was circular, or as near to that form, as 
it could be conveniently made : it was sometimes, however, on the 
plan represented by the engraving at the end of the chapter, or of 
two elliptical or circular areas conjoined. This engraving, and the 
one at page 511, together with the 9th Plate *, will render the fol- 
lowing descriptions more easily intelligible, and supply many of the 
smaller particulars which have, for this reason, been omitted in the 
text. 
The outer fence never exceeded seven feet in height, nor was it 
less than four and a half : in the better houses it was most commonly 
about six feet high ; and at the bottom, the thickness was two feet 
and a half, gradually diminishing to nine or twelve inches at the top. 
It was constructed of straight twigs and small branches, placed 
* Plate 9 is a plan, with a geometrical elevation, or rather section, of a Bachapin dwel- 
ling. In order to show its structure, it is here represented as cut through the middle, in 
a direction from the great corn-jar to the side of the door-way in the outer fence. In the 
ground-plaii, A is the veranda ; B, the outer room ; C, the inner, or central room ; D, the 
storeroom; E, the corn -house; F, F, corn-jars; G, the servants' house: H, the fire- 
place ; and I, the outer fence. 
3 U 2 
