3° COOK’s VOYAGE, 
kennel : they are feldom more than eighteen or twenty feet 
long, eight or ten broad, and five or fix high, from the pole 
that runs from one end to the other, and forms the ridge, to 
the ground : the framing is of wood, generally fiender ilicks, 
and both walls and roof confift of dry grafs and hay, which, 
it mull be confeffed, is very tightly put together ; and fame 
are alfo lined with the bark of trees, fo that in cold weamer 
they mud afford a very comforftble retreat. The roof is Hop- 
ing, like thofe of our barns, and the door is at one end, juft 
high enough to admit a man, creeping upon his hands and 
knees : near the door is a fquare hole, which ferves for the 
double office of window and chimney, for the fire-place is at 
that end, nearly in the middle between the two fides : in fome 
confpicuous part, and generally near the door, a plank is fixed, 
covered with carving after their manner : this they value as we, 
do a pidture, and in their eftimation it is not an inferior orna- 
ment : the fide walls aud roof project about two feet beyond 
the walls at each end, fo as to form a kind of porch, in which 
there are benches for the accommodation of the family. That 
part of the floor which is allotted for the fire-place, is enclofed 
in a hollow fquare, by partitions either of wood or ftone, and 
in the middle of it the fire is kindled. The floor along the 
infide of the walls, is thickly covered with ftraw, and upon 
this the family fleep. 
Their furniture and implements confift of but few articles, 
and one cheft commonly contains them all, except their pro- 
vifion balkets, the gourds that hold their frelh water, and the 
hammers that are ufed to beat their fern-root, which generally 
ftand without the door : fome rude tools, their cloaths, arms, 
and a few feathers to flick in their hair, make the reft of their 
treafure. 
Some of the better fort, whofe families are large, have three 
er four houfes enclofed within a court-yard, the walls of which 
are conftrudted of poles and hay, and are about ten or twelve 
feet high. 
When we were on fhore in the diftridl called Tolaga, we 
faw the ruins, or rather the frame of a houfe, for it had never 
been finilhed, much fuperior in flze to any that we faw' elfe- 
where : it was thirty feet in length, about fifteen in breadth, 
and twelve high : the fides of it were adorned with many carv- 
ed planks, of a workmanlhip much fuperior to any other that 
we had met with in the country ; but for what purpofe it was 
built, or why it was deferted, we could never learn. 
But thefe people, though in their houfes they are fo well de- 
fended from the inclemency of the weather, feem to be quite 
indifferent whether they have any fhelter at all during their ex- 
curfions in fearch of fern roots and fifii, fometimes letting up 
a finall lhade to windward, and fometimes altogether negledting 
even 
