Fig. 264 shows a standing fir-tree and also shows what cuts to make in
order to get the right-shaped log for an end plate. Fig. 265 shows the
method of scoring and hewing necessary in order to flatten the end of the
log as it is in Fig. 266. Fig. 267 shows the style in which the natives
roof their Susitnas with logs. The elbows at the end of the plates (Fig.
266) serve to keep the logs of the roof (Fig. 267) from rolling off, but
the Susitna log cabin which we are building is expected to have a roof
(Fig. 268) of thatch or a roof of shingles, because we have passed the
rude shacks, sheds, and shelters used for camps and are now building real
houses in which we may live. The Susitna may be built of round logs or of
flattened logs (_le carréage_), in which case we can use the General
Putnam square notch (Fig. 263) for joining the ends of our logs. In
raising the roof, erect the ridge-pole first. The ridge-pole may be set up
on two uprights to which it is temporarily nailed, and the upright props
may be held in place by the two diagonal props or braces, as shown in Fig.
263. If the logs are squared, cut a small bird's-mouth notch in the rafter
where it extends over the side-plate logs of the pen and bevel the top end
of your gable rafters to fit against the ridge-pole as in the diagrams.
The other rafters are now easily put in place, but if the logs are round
you must notch the rafters and side-plates as shown by the diagram between
Figs. 263 and 267; the dotted lines show where the rafter and the logs
come together. Nail your rafters to your ridge-pole and fasten them to the
side-plate with wooden pegs or spikes. The ridge-pole may be allowed to
extend, as in Fig. 268, on each side of the cabin or the elbows (Fig. 266)
may be attached to each end of the ridge-pole with noses turned up and
painted or carved into a fanciful head as in Fig. 268. If the roof is to
be shingled, collect a lot of poles about four inches in diameter, flatten
them on both sides, and nail them to the rafters not more than two inches
apart, allowing the ends of the sticks to extend beyond the walls of the
house at least six inches.
Fig. 263. Fig. 264. Fig. 265. Fig. 266. Fig. 267. Fig. 268.
[Illustration: The Susitna log house.]
If you desire to make your own shingles, saw up a hemlock, pine, or spruce
log into billets of one foot four inches long, then with a froe and a mall
(Fig. 179) split the shingles from the billets of wood, or use a broadaxe
for the same purpose. Broadaxes are dangerous weapons in the hands of an
amateur, but the writer split shingles with a broadaxe upon the shores of
Lake Erie when he was but seven years old and, as near as he can count, he
still has ten toes and ten fingers. If you intend to thatch the roof you
need not flatten the poles which you fasten across the rafters, because
the thatch will hide all unevenness of the underpinning. The poles may be
laid at right angles to the rafters between six and eight inches apart and
the roof thatched as described and illustrated by Fig. 66. The Susitna
form of house is the one from which the old Long Island farmhouses were
evolved, although the old Long Islanders copied theirs from the homes they
left in Holland, but we must remember that even the effete civilization of
Europe once had a backwoods country a long, long time ago, and then they
built their houses from the timbers hewn in the forests as our own
ancestors did in this country; consequently, many of the characteristics
of present-day houses which seem to us useless and unnecessary are
survivals of the necessary characteristics of houses made of crude
material.