88 
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 the}^ stretch them- 
selves around the fire with their heads resting upon their baggage.”^ 
A lodge of this kind could accommodate up to fifteen persons. To 
increase its warmth the Indians often cleared away the snow on the 
floor and hollowed out the soil to a depth of six inches or a foot, so 
that the dwelling was partly underground.- 
594 
Two types of Ojibwa l)ircli-lnuk lodf^es. (I*hoi» hi/ T. (\ Wcnioii.) 
Most of these eastern tribes built rectangular loflges in summer, 
because they were larger and more airy than the conical form. Each 
housed from two to four families; but the lodges of the Irotiuois, who 
used the rectangular form winter and summer alike, often held as 
many as twenty. C'hamplain describes some of these “long houses” 
that he visited in the Huron country, in southeastern Ontario: “ Their 
cabins are a kind of arbour or bower, covered with bark, approxi- 
mately fifty or sixty yards long by twelve wide, with a passage ten 
or twelve feet broad down the middle from one end to tlie other. 
Along each side runs a bench four feet above the ground, where the 
inmates sleep in summer to avoid the innumerable fleas. In winter 
they sleep close to the fire on mats, underneath the benches where it 
1 "Jesuit Relations.” vol. iii, p. 77. 
2 LeCleni, Cluelien: "New Relations of Gaspesiji.” eiliteri Iw W. I’. Cancjiig, p. 100 f, The Cliatn- 
plain Society (Toronto, 1910). Cf. Skinni'r, A.: " No1es on Easti-rn Cnv and Northern Saulteaux"; 
.‘VnthntpoloRieal Papers, A)n. Mils. Nat. Hist,, vol. ix, pt. I, p. 13 (New York, 1911). 
