Fig. 14. Sawed shingles and a few boards are used in lengthening the years of 
service of this rough-hewn log spring house. 
Frank Carney 
engineers, an ox-team and its driver. If the most direct line 
between houses, i.e., between springs, crossed a sharp hill, the 
highway went directly over rather than follow a contour, or take 
even a gentler, if slightly longer, grade. I have noted several 
places where in the past decade these sharp grades have been 
removed by a detour, but two generations had dragged themselves 
wearily over the hill. 
(3) The convenience of good water, or of rich bottom lands 
in the valleys, factors that would seem to have much weight with 
the early settler in choosing a location, is of secondary importance 
when opposed to an inherited topographic proclivity. A man 
reared among hills, however barren, has a latent tendency to plant 
