They immediately set about to make provisions for shelter, food, and fuel before the harsh Island winter set in.

Repairs had to be made to the log cabins. The buildings, usually only one room, were small and dark. Seams between the logs had to be chinked- stuffed with moss, clay, or seaweed— to keep out the winter winds. Each cabin had to have a chimney and a fireplace for cooking and for warmth. The settlers started fires, in the absence of matches, by rubbing flint and steel among fine shavings. They used fine sticks to provide light in the evening; later, tallow candles replaced the sticks.5

The settlers had little time for activi- ties not related to survival. It was a struggle to get enough food to survive those first years. The first crops of potatoes and vegetables were planted, tended, and har- Flail vested often

among the tree stumps without the help of machin- ery. The grain was threshed out with a flail, a wooden handle with a short, heavy, freely swinging stick fastened at one end by a thong. A good man could thresh out 30 stooks of grain a day. Meat and fish were salted in crocks for winter rationing, while hams were smoked and cured. Fish and game supplemented the farm produce. Men, with the help of their wives and children, continuously worked at the arduous task of clear- ing the land. The tree stumps were removed with the help of a capstan, a revolving solid wooden barrel shape with a vertical axis worked by Stook °f grain horses walking around and pushing

horizontal bars.6

A large family was considered by the early settlers to be an advan- tage, especially if the children were boys. Young men could toil long hours at back breaking farm work. Girls were welcomed, but no more than two or three per family were desired. One of the first families to