of
them are without glass windows; light being furnished through the
doorways, always open in the daytime, the shuttered window openings, and
the open spaces between the logs of the walls. Less than 2 per cent. of
these houses have plastered walls or ceilings, and less than 5 per cent.
have ceiled walls or ceilings. About 20 per cent. of them are fairly
well chinked with clay between the logs, the remainder being but
indifferently built in that particular. Fully 90 per cent. of these
abodes admit of free access of air at all times of day and night,
through the floors beneath as well as the walls and roof above. It is
the custom of the people to guard against the coldest of days and nights
by hanging bed clothes against the walls, and many good housewives have
a supply of tidy drapery which they keep alone for this purpose.
Wood, always at hand, is the only fuel in use. The whole heating
apparatus consists in one large open fireplace, built of stone,
communicating with a large chimney outside the house at one end, and
frequently scarcely as high as the one story building which supports it.
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