Logs for shingle making are quartered much in the same way, only instead of being split out in the full length, the log is cut up into short lengths before quartering. The shingles may be 15in. long by 9in. wide, and in form like that represented in the above illustration. The axe and beetle may be used for splitting off these wooden flakes, but the lath render’s froe is a far more convenient instrument for the purpose.
The diagrams in the next page will serve to show the mode by which the long log quarters are split up into rails, &c. Some particular species of tree will split without the aid of wedges; the axe alone being used to cleave them. Two axe men attack a log, one chops in his axe blade in the line of grain, the other follows behind and chops in his, when the first man becomes the second, and so on until the cut is complete and the log is split.
Such posts as are intended to be driven into the earth require accurate and careful pointing. Each cheek of the timber should be smoothly and evenly sloped off to about the proportion shown in the illustration representing the wedge. The centre of the post will thus become the point.
The accompanying illustration represents a log clip for holding a post whilst undergoing the process of pointing. The side wedge holds the post securely in the notched piece of log laid to receive it. A camp, garden, or cattle inclosure may be easily and expeditiously fenced in by either of the plans shown in the following illustrations. The first system of railing consists in driving double posts into the earth at equal distances, and then dropping trimmed poles and pieces of wood or stones alternately between them. A wooden pin driven through the heads of both posts at each nip keeps all compact and secure. To erect a fence by the second plan, posts are driven into the ground singly, in the position shown in the diagram on the next page, and then poles are laid with their ends crossing at a sufficient inclination to rest against and be held by the posts. The rails can be adjusted to any distance apart, by fitting in short pieces or junks of pole between the ends of the long bars. A very simple and useful fence for marking the bounds of a camp, or piece of cultivated ground, is formed by planting short stout poles obliquely in the earth, so that they may cross each other like the letters XX. The points at which the poles cross are secured with a twisted withy, a bit of raw hide, a strip of twisted bark or root. Fences of this kind are very useful to show natives the nearest point to which they may stray towards the packs and bales of goods.
The natives of British Columbia and some other countries laboriously hew and chop away the two cheeks of a log with their primitive hatchets until they form a plank by the reduction of a whole tree. In India and China the natives make use of a long cross-handled saw, not unlike our pit saw, for the division of a log into planks. They do not, however, sink a sawpit as we do in this country, but set up a pair of cross legs or shears, and run the log obliquely across the upper fork until it is some distance in the air. They then saw down to the fork of the shears, and, when that is reached, reverse the log, end for end, by tilting it, and commence at the other extremity. The hunter or explorer will, as a rule, be mainly dependent on his skill as a woodsman, and wielder of the axe, for a comfortable dwelling amongst the forests. The number of a party and the duration of a visit to any particular locality will influence the kind of structure it will be best to erect. A single trapper or hunter naturalist can content himself with very moderate accommodation.