A log cabin built with hardwood logs or with pitch-pine logs can seldom be
made as tight as one built with the straight spruce logs of the virgin
forests. The latter will lie as close as the ones shown in Fig. 162 _E_,
while the former, on account of their unevenness, will have large cracks
between them like those shown in Fig. 165 _D_. These cracks may be stopped
up by quartering small pieces of timber (_Y_ and _W_, Fig. 168½) and
fitting these quartered pieces into the cracks between the logs where they
are held by spikes. This is called "chinking the cabin."
Fig. 162. Fig. 162E Fig. 163. Fig. 164. Fig. 164F. Fig. 165.
Fig. 165C. Fig. 165D. Fig. 166. Fig. 167. Fig. 168. Fig. 168½.
[Illustration: Showing how the logs are notched.]
To keep the cold and wind out, the cracks may be "mudded" up on the inside
with clay or ordinary lime mortar.