During his trapping expeditions into the woods in midwinter, I was
curious to know how Uncle Nathan passed the nights, as we were twice
pinched with the cold at that season in our tent and blankets. It was
no trouble to keep warm, he said, in the coldest weather. As night
approached, he would select a place for his camp on the side of a hill.
With one of his snow-shoes he would shovel out the snow till the ground
was reached, carrying the snow out in front, as we scrape the earth out
of the side of a hill to level up a place for the house and yard.
On this level place, which, however, was made to incline slightly
toward the hill, his bed of boughs was made. On the ground he had
uncovered he built his fire. His bed was thus on a level with the
fire, and the heat could not thaw the snow under him and let him down,
or the burning logs roll upon him. With a steep ascent behind it the
fire burned better, and the wind was not so apt to drive the smoke and
blaze in upon him. Then, with the long, curving branches of the spruce
stuck thickly around three sides of the bed, and curving over and
uniting their tops above it, a shelter was formed that would keep out
the cold and the snow, and that would catch and retain the warmth of
the fire.
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