Huts and Snow-Houses.--In making a depôt, it is usual to build a house;
often the men must pass weeks in inactivity, and they had better spend
their time in making their quarters comfortable than in idleness.
Whatever huts are used by the natives are sure, if made with extra care,
to be good enough for European travellers.
Log-huts.--In building log-huts, four poles are planted in the ground, to
correspond to the four corners; against these, logs are piled one above
another as in the drawing below; they are so deeply notched where their
ends are crossed, that the adjacent sides are firmly dovetailed. When the
walls are entirely completed, the door and windows are chopped out.
[Sketch of cabin].
The spaces between the logs must be caulked with moss, etc., or the
log-cabin will be little better than a log-cage. It requires a great many
logs to make a hut; for, supposing the walls to be 8 feet high, and the
trees to average 8 inches in diameter, twelve trees would be required to
build up one side, or forty-eight for all four walls. Other timber would
also be wanted for the roof.
Underground Huts are used in all quarters of the globe. The experience of
our troops when encamped before Sebastopol during an inclement season
told strongly in their favour. Their timely adoption was the salvation of
the British army. They are essentially, nothing else than holes in the
ground, roofed over, fig. 1.
[Sketch of roof and geometrical measure].
The shape and size of the hole corresponds to that of the roof it may be
possible to procure for it; its depth is no greater than requisite for
sitting or standing. If the roof has a pitch of 2 feet in the middle, the
depth of the hole need not exceed 4 1/2 feet. In the Crimea, the holes
were rectangular, and were roofed like huts.
Where there is a steep hillside, a a', fig. 2, an underground hut, b, is
easily contrived; because branches laid over its top, along the surface
of the ground, have sufficient pitch to throw off the rain. Of course the
earth must be removed from a', at the place intended for the doorway.
Reed Huts.--The reed huts of the Affej Arabs, and other inhabitants of
the Chaldean marshes, are shaped like wagon-roofs, and are constructed of
semicircular ribs of reeds, planted in the ground, one behind the other,
at equal distances apart; each rib being a faggot of reeds of 2 feet in
diameter. For strength, they are bound round every yard with twisted
bands of reeds. When this framework has been erected, it is covered with
two or three sheets of fine reed matting (see "Matting"), which forms a
dwelling impervious to rain. Some of the chiefs' huts are as much as 40
feet long, and 12 high; the other huts are considerably smaller. Many of
these reed dwellings are contained in compounds enclosed by lofty reed
fences; the reeds being planted upright, and simply strung together by a
thread run through them, as they stand side by side. (See "Straw and Reed
Walls.")
Snow-houses.--Few travellers have habitually made snow-houses, except Sir
J. Franklin's party and that of Dr. Rae. Great praises are bestowed on
their comfort by all travellers, but skill and practice are required in
building them. The mode of erection of these dome-shaped buildings is as
follows:--It is to be understood that compact, underlying snow is
necessary for the floor of the hut; and that the looser textured, upper
layer of snow, is used to build the house. First, select and mark out the
circular plot on which the hut is to be raised. Then, cut out of that
plot, with knives, deep slices of snow, 6 inches wide, 3 feet long, and
of a depth equal to that of the layer of loose snow, say one or two feet.
These slices are to be of a curved shape, so as to form a circular ring
when placed on their edges, and of a suitable radius for the first row of
snow-bricks. Other slices are cut on the same principle for the
succeeding rows; but when the domed roof has to be made, the snow-bricks
must be cut with the necessary double curvature. A conical plug fills up
the centre of the dome. Loose snow is next heaped over the house, to fill
up crevices. Lastly a doorway is cut out with knives; also a window,
which is glazed with a sheet of the purest ice at hand. For inside
accommodation there should be a pillar or two of snow to support the
lamps.
Snow Walls with Tenting for their Roofs.--Sir L. McClintock says:--"We
travelled each day until dusk, and then were occupied for a couple of
hours in building our snow-hut. The four walls were run up until 5 1/2
feet high, inclining inwards as much as possible, over these our tent was
laid to form a roof. We could not afford the time necessary to construct
a dome of snow. Our equipment consisted of a very small brown-holland
tent, macintosh floor-cloth and felt robes; besides this, each man had a
bag of double blanketing, and a pair of fur boots, to sleep in. We wore
mocassins over the pieces of blanketing in which our feet were wrapped
up, and, with the exception of a change of this foot-gear, carried no
spare clothes.
"When we halted for the night, Thompson and I usually sawed out the
blocks of compact snow, and carried them to Petersen, who acted as the
master-mason in building the hut. The hour-and-a-half or two hours
usually employed in erecting the edifice was the most disagreeable part
of the day's labour; for, in addition to being already well tired and
desiring repose, we became thoroughly chilled while standing about. The
dogs were then fed, then the sledge unpacked, and everything carried into
it. The door was now blocked up with snow, the cooking-lamp lighted,
foot-gear changed, diary writing up, watches wound, sleeping-bags
wriggled into, pipes lighted, and the merits of the various dogs
discussed, until supper was ready; the supper swallowed, the upper robe
or coverlet pulled over, and then to sleep. Next morning came breakfast,
a struggle to get into frozen mocassins, after which the sledges were
packed, and another day's march commenced. In these little huts we
usually slept warm enough, although latterly, when our blankets and
clothes became loaded with ice, we felt the cold severely. When our low
doorway was carefully blocked up with snow, and the cooking-lamp alight,
the temperature quickly rose, so that the walls became glazed and our
bedding thawed; but the cooking over, or the doorway partially opened, it
as quickly fell again, so that it was impossible to sleep, or even to
hold one's pannikin of tea without putting mits on, so intense was the
cold."--Sir L. McClintock is here speaking of a temperature of -39
degrees Fahr.
Materials for building Huts.--The materials whence the walls and roofs of
huts may be constructed are very numerous: there is hardly any place
which does not furnish one or other of them. Those principally in use are
as follows:--
Wattle-and-daub, to be executed neatly, required well-shaped and flexible
sticks; but a hut may be constructed much like the sketch (see p. 120) of
the way of "Drying Clothes." It is made by planting in the ground a
number of bare sticks, 4 feet long, and 1 foot apart, bending their tops
together, lashing them fast with string or strips of bark, and wattling
them judiciously here and there, by means of other boughs, laid
horizontally. Then, by heaping leaves--and especially broad pieces of
bark, if you can get them--over all, and banking up the earth on either
side, pretty high, an excellent kennel is made. If daubed over with mud,
clay, or cattle-dung, the hut becomes more secure against the weather. To
proceed a step further:--as many poles may be planted in the ground as
sticks have been employed in making the roof; and then the roof may be
lifted bodily in the air, and lashed to the top of the poles, each stick
to its corresponding pole. This sort of structure is very common among
savages.
For methods of digging holes in which to plant the hut-poles, see the
chapter on "Wells." The holes made in the way I have there explained are
far better than those dug with spades; for they disturb no more of the
hardened ground than is necessary for the insertion of the palisades. To
jam a pole tightly in its place, wedges of wood should be driven in at
its side, and earth rammed down between the wedges.
Palisades are excellent as walls or as enclosures. They are erected of
vast lengths, by savages wholly destitute of tools, both for the purposes
of fortification and also for completing lines of pitfalls across wide
valleys. the pitfalls occupy gaps left in the palisading. The savages
burn down the trees in the following manner:--a party of men go to the
forest, and light small fires round the roots of the trees they propose
to fell. the fires are prevented from flaming upwards by the judicious
application of leaves, etc. When the fire has eaten a little way into the
tree, the man who watches it scrapes the fire aside and knocks away the
charred wood, exposing a fresh surface for fire to act upon, and then
replaces the burning embers. A single man may easily attend to a dozen
trees, and, indeed, to many more, if the night be calm. Some hours elapse
before the trees actually fall. Their tops and branches are burnt off as
they lie on the ground. The poles being thus procured for the palisading,
they are carried to the required place, where holes are dug for their
reception, on the principle described in "Wells," to which I have just
alluded.
Straw or Reed Walls of the following kind are very effective, and they
have the advantage of requiring a minimum of string (or substitute for
string) in their manufacture. The straw, reeds, or herbage, of almost any
description, is simply nipped between two pairs of long sticks, which are
respectively tied together at their ends, and at a sufficient number of
intermediate places. The whole is neatly squared and trimmed.
[Sketch of straw walls].
A few of these would give good help in finishing the roof or walls of a
house. They can be made moveable, so as to suit the wind, shade, and
aspect. Even the hut door can be made on this principle. In reedy
countries where there are no sticks, thin faggots of reeds are used in
their place.
Bark.--Bark is universally used in Australia for roofs of huts and
temporary buildings; the colonists learnt the use of it from the natives,
and some trees, at least, in every forest-country might very probably be
found as well fitted for that purpose as those in Australia. The bark may
be easily removed, only when the sap is well up in the tree, but a
skilful person will manage to procure bark at all seasons of the year,
except in the coldest winter months; and even then he will light on some
tree, from the sunny side of which he can strip broad pieces. The process
of bark-stripping is simply to cut two rings right round the tree
(usually from 6 to 9 feet apart), and one vertical slit to join them;
starting from the slit, and chipping away step by step on either side,
the whole cylinder of bark is removed. The larger the tree, the better;
for if the tree is less than 18 inches, or so, in diameter, the bark is
apt to break when flattened out. When stripped for huts, it is laid on
the ground for some days to dry, being flattened out on its face, and a
few stones or logs put on it. the ordinary bark of gum-trees is about
half an inch to three-eighths thick, so that a large sheet is very heavy.
Most exploring expeditions are accompanied by a black, whose dexterity in
stripping bark for a wet night is invaluable, as if the bark will "come
off" well, he can procure enough of it in an hour's time to make a
shelter for a large party.
Mats can be woven with ease when there is abundance of string, or some
equivalent for it (see "String"), in the following manner:--
[Sketch of loom].
A, B, are two pegs driven into the ground and standing about a foot out
of it. A stake, A B, is lashed across them; a row of pegs, E, are driven
into the ground, parallel to A, B, and about 6 inches apart. Two sets of
strings are then tied to A B; one set are fastened by their loose ends
into clefts, in the pegs E, and the other set are fastened to the stick,
C D. If there be ten strings in all, then 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, are tied to C D,
and 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, to A B. By alternately raising and depressing C D,
and by pushing in a handful of rushes between the two sets of strings
after each of its movements, and, finally, by patting them home with a
flat stick, this rough sort of weaving is carried on very successfully.
Mats are also plaited in breadths, and the breadths are stitched
together, side by side. Or a thicker kind of mat may be made by taking a
wisp of straw and working it in the same way in which straw beehives are
constructed. Straw is worked more easily after being damped and beaten
with a mallet.
Malay hitch.--I know no better name for the wonderfully simple way (shown
in the figure) of attaching together wisps of straw, rods, laths, reeds,
planks, poles, or anything of the kind, into a secure and flexible mat;
the sails used in the far East are made in this way, and the moveable
decks of vessels are made of bamboos, joined together with a similar but
rather more complicated stitch.
[Sketch of fastening].
I may remark that soldiers might be trained to a great deal of hutting
practice in a very inexpensive way, if they were drilled at putting
together huts, whose roofs and walls were made of planks lashed together
by this simple hitch, and whose supports were short scaffolding poles
planted in deep holes, dug, as explained in the chapter on "Wells," with
the hand and a small stick. The poles, planks, and cords might be used
over and over again for an indefinite time. Further, bedsteads could be
made in a similar way, by short cross-planks lashed together, and resting
on a framework of horizontal poles, lashed to uprights planted in the
ground. The soldier's bedding would not be injured by being used on these
bedsteads, as much as if it were laid on the bare ground. Kinds of
designs and experiments in hutting could be practised without expense in
this simple way.
Tarpaulings are very suitable for roofs. Those made after the method used
by sailors are much superior to others in softness and durability. The
plan is as follows:--As soon as the canvas has been sewn together, it is
thoroughly wetted with sea-water; and, while still wet, it is smeared
over on one of its sides with tar and grease, boiled together--about two
parts tar and one of grease. After being hung up till it is dry, it is
turned; and the other side, being a second time well wetted, is at once
painted over with the tar and grease, just as the first side had been
before. The sailors say that "the tar dries in, as the water dries out;"
a saying which I confess I cannot understand.
Other Materials.--I will merely mention these by name, for they require
no explanation. They are fascines or faggots; bricks, sun-dried or baked
in the oven; turf; stones; and bags or mats, filled with sand or shingle.
Whitewash is lime and water. Lime is made by burning limestone, chalk,
shells, or coral in a simple furnace.
Roofs.--Thatching.--After the framework of the roof has been made, the
thatcher begins at the bottom, and ties a row of bundles of straw, side
by side, on to the framework. Then he begins a second row, allowing the
ends of the bundles composing it to overlap the heads of those in the
first row.
Wood-shingles are tile-shaped slices of wood, easily cut from fir-trees.
They are used for roofing, on the same principle as tiles or slates.
Floors.--Concrete for floors, is made of eight parts large pebbles, four
parts river-sand, and one part lime (to make lime, see "Whitewash").
Cow-dung and ashes make a hard, dry, and clean floor; such as is used for
a threshing-floor. Ox blood and fine clay kneaded together are excellent.
Both these latter compositions are in use in all hot dry countries.
Windows.--A window, or rather a hole in the wall, may be rudely shuttered
by a stick run through loops made out of wisps of grass. In hot weather,
the windows of the hutmay be loosely stuffed with grass, which, when
watered, makes the hut cooler.
Glass, to cut.--Glass cannot be cut with any certainty, without a
diamond; but it may be shaped and reduced to any size by gradually
chipping, or rather biting, away at its edges with a key, if the slit
between the wards of the key be just large enough to admit the pane of
glass easily.
[Sketch].
Substitutes for glass.--These are waxed or oiled paper or cloth, bladder,
fish-membranes, talc, and horn. (See "Horn.")