After the walls are erected, a beaver-mat roof may be placed upon them or
a roof made on a frame such as shown in Fig. 28 and thatched with small
sticks over which a thatch of straw, hay, rushes (Figs. 66 and 69), or
browse may be used to shed the rain.
One great advantage which recommends the beaver-mat and fagot camp to
lovers of nature and students of forestry lies in the fact that it is
unnecessary to cut down or destroy a single large or valuable young tree
in order to procure the material necessary to make the camp. Both of these
camps can be made in forest lands by using the lower branches of the
trees, which, when properly cut close to the trunk (Fig. 121), do not
injure the standing timber. The fagot hut may be made into a permanent
camp by plastering the outside with soft mud or clay and treating the
inside walls in the same manner, thus transforming it into an adobe
shack.