anner:--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