Shelters, Shacks and Shanties Part 15

NATIVE NAMES FOR THE PARTS OF A KANUCK LOG CABIN, AND HOW TO BUILD ONE

IF the writer forgets himself once in a while and uses words not familiar to his boy readers, he hopes they will forgive him and put all such slips down as the result of leaving boys' company once in a while and a.s.sociating with men. The reader knows that men dearly love big, ungainly words and that just as soon as boys do something worth while the men get busy hunting up some top-heavy name for it.

When one is talking of foreign things, however, it is well to give the foreign names for those things, and, since the next house to be described is not a real American one but a native of Canada, the Canadian names are given for its parts. While in northern Quebec, making notes for the Kanuck, the writer enlisted the interest of a fellow member of the Camp-Fire Club of America, Doctor Alexander Lambert, and through him secured the names of all parts of the Canadian shack.

The author is not a French-Canadian, and, although, like most of his readers, he studied French at school, what he learned of that great language is now securely locked up in one of the safe-deposit vaults of his brain and the key lost.

He owns up to his ignorance because he is a scout and would not try to deceive his readers, also because if the reader's knowledge of French enables him to find some error, the writer can sidestep the mistake and say, "'Tain't mine." But, joking aside, these names are the ones used in the Province of Quebec and are here given not because they are good French but because they are the names used by the builders among the natives known by the Indians as _les habitants_

Local Names of Parts of Cabin

spruce epinette balsam sapin to chop boucher, Figs. 113 and 122 to cut couper logs les bois or les billots, _A_, _A_, _A_, Figs. 242, 245, also 119, 126, etc.

square carre door porte, Figs. 242, 243 window cha.s.sis, Fig. 243 window-gla.s.s les vitres, 242 the joist on which the floor is laid les traverses, Fig. 49, _B_, _B_, _B_, _B_, Fig. 244 the floor itself plancher the purlins, that is, the two big logs used to support the roof les poudres, _C_, _C_, Fig. 244 the roof couverture, Fig. 242 bark ecorce birch bark bouleau the poles put on a birch-bark roof to keep the bark flat les peches, Figs. 41, 234, 242 the hollow half-logs sometimes used like tiling on a roof les auges, Fig. 246 piazza, porch, front stoop, veranda galerie, Figs. 236, 237, and 241

The only thing that needs explanation is the squaring of the round logs of the cabin. For instance, instead of leaving the logs absolutely round and untouched inside the camp, after the logs are placed, they are squared off so as to leave a flat surface (Fig. 125). They call this the _carreage_. I do not know whether this is a local name or whether it is an expression peculiar to that Quebec section of Canada or whether it is simply a corruption of better French. It is derived from the word _carrer_, to square.

Fig. 242. Fig. 243. Fig. 244. Fig. 245. Fig. 246. Fig. 247.

Fig. 248. Fig. 249.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Showing construction of the common Canadian log house.]

The perspective drawings (Figs. 242 and 243) show views of the cabin we call the Kanuck. The pen is built exactly as it is built in the houses already described. The windows are placed where the builder desires, as is also the doorway, but when the side-plate logs, that is

Les Traverses

or top side logs, are put in place, then the traverses logs (_B_, _B_, _B_, _B_, Fig. 244) are laid across the pen from one side-plate to the other, their ends resting on top of the side-plates over the traverses logs, the two purlins

Les Poudres

(_C_, _C_, Fig. 244) are notched and fitted, and over their ends the two pieces _D_, _D_ are fitted, and, resting on the centres of the _D_ logs, the ridge log (_E_, Fig. 244) is placed.

Couverture

The roof is made of small logs flattened on the under-side or left in their rounded form (Fig. 242) and laid from the ridge logs down, extending over the eaves six or more inches.

Les Peches

The roof logs are then held in place by poles pegged with wooden pegs to the roof (_F_, _G_, Fig. 242).

Roofing Material

The roof is now covered with a thick layer of browse, hay, straw, dry leaves, or dry gra.s.s, and on top of this moist blue clay, yellow clay, hard-pan, or simple mud is spread and trampled down hard, forcing the thatch underneath into all the cracks and crannies and forming a firm covering of clay several inches thick.

Fireplace

The fireplace and chimney may be built inside or outside the cabin, or the house may be heated by a stove and the stovepipe allowed to protrude through a hole in the roof large enough to separate the pipe a safe distance from the wood and straw and amply protected by a piece of sheet iron or tin. Then, after you have stored your _butin_ (luggage), you can sit and sing:

You may pull the _sourdine_ out You may push the _rabat-joie_ in But the _boucan_ goes up the _cheminee_ just the same Just the same, just the same, But the _boucan_ goes up the _cheminee_ just the same.

When "l'habitant" hears you sing this verse he will not know what your song is about, but he will slap you on the back, laugh, and call you _Bon Homme chez nous_, but do not get mad at this; it is a compliment and not a bad name.

Clay Roof

A clay roof should be as flat as possible with only pitch enough to shed the water; a s.h.i.+ngle roof should have a rise of at least one foot high to four feet wide and a thatched roof should have a rise of 45, that is, the rise of a line drawn from corner to corner of a square.

Fig. 247 shows a gable filled with upright logs and Fig. 248 shows a tar paper roof and a gable covered with tar paper.

Since Kanucks are cold-climate houses, they frequently have novel means of keeping them warm; one way that I have frequently seen used is to surround them with a log fence shown in Fig. 249, and pack the s.p.a.ce between with stable manure or dirt and rotten leaves.

XL

HOW TO MAKE A POLE HOUSE AND HOW TO MAKE A UNIQUE BUT THOROUGHLY AMERICAN TOTEM LOG HOUSE

A POLE house is a log house with the logs set upright. We call it a pole house because, usually, the logs are smaller than those used for a log house. The pole house (Fig. 250) is built in the manner shown by Figs.

171, 172, and 173, but in the present instance the ridge-pole is a log which is allowed to extend some distance beyond the house both in front and rear, and the front end of the ridge-pole is carved in the shape of a grotesque or comical animal's head like those we see on totem-poles. The roof is made of shakes (see Figs. 126 to 130) and the shakes are held in place by poles pegged onto the roof in much the same manner as we have described and called _les peches_ for the Kanuck. This pole cabin may have an old-fas.h.i.+oned Dutch door which will add to its quaintness and may have but one room which will answer the many purposes of a living-room, sleeping-room, and dining-room. A lean-to at the back can be used for a kitchen.

American Totem Log House

But if you really want something unique, build a log house on the general plan shown by Figs. 251 and 252; then carve the ends of all the extending logs to represent the heads of reptiles, beasts, or birds; also carve the posts which support the end logs on the front gallery, porch, or veranda in the form of totem-poles. You may add further to the quaint effect by placing small totem-posts where your steps begin on the walk (Fig. 253) and adding a tall totem-pole (Fig. 255) for your family totem or the totem of your clan. Fig. 252 shows how to arrange and cut your logs for the pens. The dining-room is supposed to be behind the half part.i.tion next to the kitchen; the other half of this room being open, with the front room, it makes a large living-room. The stairs lead up to the sleeping-rooms overhead; the latter are made by dividing the s.p.a.ce with part.i.tions to suit your convenience.

Before Building

Take your jack-knife and a number of little sticks to represent the logs of your cabin; call an inch a foot or a half inch a foot as will suit your convenience and measure all the sticks on this scale, using inches or parts of inches for feet. Then sit down on the ground or on the floor and experiment in building a toy house or miniature model until you make one which is satisfactory. Next glue the little logs of the pen together; but make the roof so that it may be taken off and put on like the lid to a box; keep your model to use in place of an architect's drawing; the backwoods workmen will understand it better than they will a set of plans and sections on paper. Fig. 251 is a very simple plan and only put here as a suggestion. You can put the kitchen at the back of the house instead of on one side of it or make any changes which suit your fancy; the pen of the house may be ten by twelve or twenty by thirty feet, a camp or a dwelling; the main point is to finish your house up with totems as shown by Fig. 253, and then tell the other fellows where you got the idea.

Fig. 250. Fig. 251. Fig. 252. Fig. 253. Fig. 254. Fig. 255.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A totem motif. An artistic and novel treatment for a log house.]

Peeled Logs

For any structure which is intended to be permanent never use the logs with bark on them; use _peeled_ logs. When your house is finished it may look very fresh and new without bark, but one season of exposure to the weather will tone it down so that it will be sufficiently rustic to please your fancy, but if you leave the bark on the logs, a few seasons will rot your house down, making it _too_ rustic to suit any one's fancy.