LOG-HOUSES. 327 inhabitants, by cutting down the trees on the site of his intended habitation, and those growing on the ground immediately adjoining. This operation is performed with the axe, by cutting a notch on each side of the tree, about two feet above the ground, and rather more than half through on the side it is intended the tree should fall on. The lower edges of these notches are cut horizontally, the upper making an angle of about 60° with the ground. The trees are all felled in the same direction, and after lopping off the principal branches, cut into ten or twelve feet lengths. On the spot on which the house is to be erected, these junks are rolled away, and the smaller parts cleared off, or burnt. The habitations which the new settlers first erect, are all nearly in the same style, and in imitation of, or altogether like, the dwellings of an American back¬ woodsman, constructed in the rudest manner. Round logs, from fifteen to twenty feet long, without^ the least dressing, are laid horizontally over each other, and notched in at the corners to allow them to come, along the walls, within about an inch of each other. One is first laid on each side to begin the walls, then one at each end, and the building is raised in this manner, by a succession of logs crossing and binding each other at the corners, until the wall is six or seven feet high. The seams are closed with moss or clay ; three or four rafters are then raised to sup¬ port the roof, which is covered with boards, or more frequently with the rinds of birch or fir-trees, and thatched with spruce branches, or, if near the sea-