18 
THE MAINE WOODS. 
upon transverse ones at the ends, each of the last suc¬ 
cessively shorter than the other, to form the roof. The 
chimney was an oblong square hole in the middle, three 
or four feet in diameter, with a fence of logs as high as 
the ridge. The interstices were filled with moss, and 
the roof was shingled with long and handsome splints of 
cedar, or spruce, or pine, rifted with a sledge and cleaver. 
The fire-place, the most important place of all, was in 
shape and size like the chimney, and directly under it, 
defined by a log fence or fender on the ground, and a 
heap of ashes, a foot or two deep, within, with solid 
benches of split logs running round it. Here the fire 
usually melts the snow, and dries the rain before it can 
descend to quench it. The faded beds of arbor-vitas 
leaves extended under the eaves on either hand. There 
was the place for the water-pail, pork-barrel, and wash¬ 
basin, and generally a dingy pack of cards left on a log. 
Usually a good deal of whittling was expended on the 
latch, which was made of wood, in the form of an iron 
one. These houses are made comfortable by the huge 
fires, which can be afforded night and day. Usually the 
scenery about them is drear and savage enough; and the 
loggers’ camp is as completely in the woods as a fungus 
at the foot of a pine in a swamp; no outlook but to the 
sky overhead; no more clearing than is made by cutting 
down the trees of which it is built, and those which are 
necessary for fuel. If only it be well sheltered and con¬ 
venient to his work, and near a spring, he wastes no 
thought on the prospect. They are very proper forest 
houses, the stems of the trees collected together and 
piled up around a man to keep out wind and rain,— 
made of living green logs, hanging with moss and lichen, 
and with the curls and fringes of the yellow-birch bark, 
