Only a few houses in 1820 were built of frame construction. Many were constructed from squared or unsquared logs dovetailed together at the corners. The floors were made from boards with a cellar below to store potatoes and roots. The chimneys were built of stone below and the upper part was made from a mixture of clay and straw. At this time bricks were beginning to be made on the Island. Fences were made from poles although J.L. Lewellyn , an agent for Lawrence Sullivan , introduced thorn hedges. The forests in 1820 covered much of P. E. I ., but as settlers began to obtain land away from the shore, rough roads were cut through the trees and the land was gradually cleared. Oxen were sometimes used to remove stumps. If the settler did not own an ox, the stumps were removed with grubbing hoes and levers. Fire was also used but it frequen¬ tly got out of control and burned acres of good forest land. The pastimes of the people in the l820's were riding, racing, dancing and drinking rum. They were kindhearted, independent, patient people who probably became pioneers because of the chance to become independent and by hard work to achieve some form of material wealth of their own. Many were frustrated and endured hardships, but others succeeded and immigrants continued to come to Prince Edward Island . EARLY ACADIANS OF P.E.I. AND The Isle de St. Jean was known to the French from at least 1531* when Jacques Cartier first landed at Cascumpec . No permanent French settlement was made in Richmond ( Malpeque ) Bay until 1728 when three Acadians, Pierre Arsenault , Charles Arsenault , Jean Lambert and their families settled and began to farm at the present site of Malpeque . In the fall of 1728 a plague of field mice destroyed all their crops as well as the crops of all Acadian families. The Island settlers had to look to Louisbourg for food for the winter and for seed ln the spring. Many people were reduced to eating shellfish during the winter.