's _History_. Vol. IV., pp. 387, 388.]

%304. Life on the Frontier.%--The "mover," or, as we should say, the
emigrant, would provide himself with a small wagon, very light, but
strong enough to carry his family, provisions, bedding, and utensils;
would cover it with a blanket or a piece of canvas or with linen which
was smeared with tar inside to make it waterproof; and with two stout
horses to pull it, would set out for the West, and make his way across
Pennsylvania to Pittsburg, then the greatest city of the West, with a
population of 7000. Some, as of old, would take boats and float down the
Ohio; others would go on to Wheeling, be ferried across the river, and
push into Ohio or Indiana or Illinois, there to "take up" a quarter
section (160 acres) of government land, or buy or rent a "clearing" from
some shiftless settler of an earlier day. Government land intended for
sale was laid out in quarter sections of 160 acres, and after being
advertised for a certain time was offered for sale at public auction.
What was not sold could then be purchased at the land office of the
district at two dollars an acre, one quarter to be paid down, and three
fourths before the expiration of four years. The emigrant, having
gathered eighty dollars, would go to some land office, "enter" a quarter
section, pay the first installment, and make his way in the two-horse
wagon containing his family and his worldly goods to the spot where was
to be his future home. Every foot of it in all probability would be
covered with bushes and trees.

[Illustration: Distribution of the Population of the United States
Fourth Census, 1820]

%305. The Log Cabin.%--In that case the settler would cut down a few
saplings, make a "half-faced camp," and begin his clearing. The
"half-faced camp" was a shed. Three sides were of logs laid one on
another horizontally. The roof was of saplings covered with branches or
bark. The fourth side was open, and when it rained was closed by hanging
up deerskin curtains. In this camp the newcomer and his family would
live while he grubbed up the bushes and cut down trees enough to make a
log cabin. If he were a thrifty, painstaking man, he would smooth each
log on four sides with his ax, and notch it half through at each end so
that when they were placed one on another the faces would nearly touch.
Saplings would make the rafters, and on them would be fastened planks
laid clapboard fashion, or possibly split shingles.

An