ve. The Susitna may be built of round logs or of
flattened logs (_le carreage_), 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, alt