of log houses39‘. Spruce was also used for the 
     
     logs of log housesm, while Stewart (1806) said 
     
     that white spruce was sometimes used for rafters 
     
     and Bain (1890) noted that ’spruce’ in general was 
     
     used for ’rough boards and shingles’. Stewart 
     
     (1806) also said that fir was used for ’lath wood’, 
     
     while Bain (1890) mentions its use in the ’frames 
     
     of buildings’.393 As for hemlock, because it was 
     
     known to be prone to cracks and splits”, its use 
     
     as boards was restricted to rough work: ’laths’, 
     
     'flooring’ and ’wainscoting’ are mentioned in the 
     
     sources”? Finally, the only mention of the use of 
     
     cedar is for shingles396 and for the 'sills of 
     
     buildings’397, while there is no mention at all of the 
     
     use of tamarack in building, though undoubtedly it 
     
     must have been used on occasion. Apart from the 
     
     various woods used, Selkirk (1803) also noted that 
     
     birch bark was 'put under shingles’.398 Of course, 
     
     these scattered written records give us only a 
     
     general indication of the usage of the various tree 
     
    
   
   
    
     species in building construction, a usage which 
     
    
   
   
    
     Lower 1973, p. 252). Also Macphail (1939) describes a house 
     
     with interior walls of “thick pine planks“. 
     
    
   
   
    
     389 A 1774 act of the island's House of Assembly (1773-1849) 
     
     that established regulations for the size and quality of clapboards 
     
     that were offered for sale, makes reference only to pine 
     
     clapboards. 
     
    
   
   
    
     39“ Selkirk 1803; Johnstone 1822', [Lawson] (1877-1878). The 
     
     islands House of Assembly (1773-1849) in 1774 when 
     
     establishing regulations for the size and quality of shingles offered 
     
     for sale, referred only to pine shingles, though in acts of 1820 and 
     
     1849, both pine and cedar are mentioned as woods from which 
     
     shingles could be made. 
     
    
   
   
    
     39‘ [Hill] 1319; Marryat1829. 
     
    
   
   
    
     392 Selkirk 1803, [Hill] 1819. 
     
     393 Also, Benjamin Chappell (1775-1818) used ‘fir‘ in the 'frame' of 
     
     the “counting house' at Elizabethtown in 1775, also in i776 for 
     
     ‘weatherboard' [clapboard7], and in 1776 and 1778 for ‘planks‘. 
     
    
   
   
    
     39‘ This is why Selkirk (1803) called it a ‘shaken‘ wood. 
     
     395 It is Hill (1839) who mentions the flooring and wainscotting. No 
     
     one makes mention of its use for the rough boarding of houses, 
     
     where it would have been covered over, as well as in barns. 
     
     Perley (1846) says this was its most common use in New 
     
     Brunswick, and it was undoubtedly so also on Prince Edward 
     
     Island. 
     
     395 Hill (1839) said cedar made the best shingles, while the 
     
     colony's House of Assembly (1773-1849) attempted to set 
     
     standards (in 1820 and 1849) for the size and quality of cedar 
     
     shingles offered for sale. Bain (1890) also mentions its use for 
     
     shingles, 
     
    
   
   
    
     39’ Bain 1890. 
     
    
   
   
    
     398 Seymour (1840) ([5 Sept] not extracted) also noted that ‘bark‘ 
     
     was put under shingles and clapboard, though he neglected to say 
     
    
   
   
    
     it was birch. 
     
    
   
   
    
     63 
     
    
   
   
    
     will also have varied during the century and a half 
     
     between the 17505 and 1900, especially as during 
     
     this time some of the species, particularly the 
     
     white pine and the hemlock, became less 
     
     available. Undoubtedly, a more reliable way to 
     
     determine the actual usage of the different woods 
     
     in buildings on the island in the colonial period, 
     
     would be to examine the structure of a sample of 
     
     the many old houses and barns that are still 
     
     standing — though for both, sadly, it is a stock that 
     
     is diminishing as each year goes by.399 
     
    
   
   
    
     The log house - Because of its novelty in British 
     
     eyes, many recorders give an extended description 
     
     of the settler's first dwelling, the log house or log 
     
     cabin, some including a brief description of how it 
     
     was made.400 Lord Selkirk (1805) provides a 
     
     reasonably succinct description of the first log 
     
     shelters that were built by his settlers at Belfast in 
     
     1803: 
     
    
   
   
    
     The first buildings are constructed without any other 
     
     materials than what the forests afford, and without the 
     
     aid of any tool but the axe. The walls are formed of 
     
     straight logs, about eight inches in diameter‘m, rough 
     
     and undressed, laid horizontally, and crossing each other 
     
    
   
   
    
     at the corners402 The roof is formed of bark, either of 
     
     the birch or spruce fir (i.e. spruce], peeled off the trees 
     
     in large unbroken pieces, which are secured by poles 
     
     tied down on them with wythes or pliable twigs. This 
     
     covering, if well laid, is sufficient to keep out any rain, 
     
     but must be protected from the sun by a thatch of 
     
    
   
   
    
     aquatic grasses, or the small twigs of the spruce and 
     
    
   
   
    
     other sorts of fir403. 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
     399 For example, in my own house built at Centreville Bedeque 
     
    
   
   
    
     about 1835-1845, spruce and pine were used for the timber frame, 
     
     hemlock throughout for the rough boards that would be covered 
     
     over (i.e. exterior walls, roof and sub—floors); pine for the floor 
     
     boards and the finish wood (trim, panel doors), and cedar for the 
     
     clapboard and shingles. 
     
    

    
     ‘°° The following recorders describe the log house: Curtis 1775 
     
     (pp. 47-48, not extracted); [Cambridge] 1796? (p. 10, not 
     
     extracted); Selkirk 1803 (p. 23, not extracted); Selkirk 1805; 
     
     Anon. 1808 (pp. 10-11, not extracted); [Hill] 1819 (p. 23, not 
     
     extracted); Johnstone 1822; MacGregor 1828 (p. 60, not 
     
     extracted); Marryat 1829; Anon. 1836; Lawson 1851; Anon. 1867 
     
     (not extracted). 
     
    

    
     ‘°‘ Curtis (1775) (pp. 47-48, not extracted) provides the extra 
     
     detail that in laying the logs the big ends and small ends were 
     
     alternated, or as he put it: “when one was laid down the next was 
     
     laid with the big end on the small". 
     
    

    
     ‘02 MacGregor (1828) (p. 60, not extracted) also said that the 
     
     logs were “notched at the corners, so as to let them down 
     
     sufficiently close; all crossing each other at the corners". 
     
    

    
     ‘03 Similarly, MacGregor (1828) (p. 60, not extracted) said that the 
     
     roof was “thatched either with spruce branches or long marine 
     
     grass" (presumably eel-grass, Zostera marina, still used on the 
     
     island for banking buildings in winter). However he clarifies