A Stone-paved Fireplace.

The following summer we continued our open fireplace experiments.  Instead of using logs we drove stakes into the ground, forming a small circular stockade about 2 feet high and 3 feet in diameter.  A paving of small stones covered the floor of the fireplace, and a lining of stones was laid against the wall.  The stakes were driven in on a slant, as illustrated in Fig. 198, so as to better support the stone lining.  A break in the stockade at one side let in the necessary draft.  Two of the stakes on opposite sides of the fire were made extra long, and were crotched at their upper ends.  They served to support the cross stick from which our kettles were hung.  This form of fireplace was more satisfactory for baking than the one in which logs were used for the side walls, because the stone lining retained the heat much longer.  To bake biscuit, a pot of beans, or the like, the ashes would be drawn away from the stone paving and the pot placed directly on the hot stones, after which it was covered with hot embers and ashes.

[Illustration:  Fig.198.  A Stone-paved Fireplace.]

A Cold Night in the Hut.

But to return to our experiences on the island.  We found it very cold on the first night in the hut.  We were afraid to build a fire inside lest the straw thatchings would catch lire, and so we huddled together in the corner, rolled up tightly in our blankets.  But it was cold, nevertheless.  We had no door to close the opening into the hut, and instead had piled up branches of cedar and hemlock against the doorway.  But a bitterly cold northwest wind was blowing down the river, and we couldn’t keep warm, no matter what we did.  Most of the boys were ready to go right home, but we stuck it out until the morning, and then after we had toasted ourselves before a blazing bright fire, and had eaten a hot breakfast, we forgot much of the discomfort of the night and were ready for more “fun.”  We thought we would spend the next night in our tree house, and so, right after breakfast, we packed up our blankets and some provisions and started for the Jacob’s Ladder.

Mountain Climbing.

Each fellow was provided with a pair of ice creepers of the same sort as we had used in connection with the rennwolf (see page 170).  In addition to this each boy was provided with a home-made alpine stock, consisting of a stout wooden stick in the end of which a large nail was driven and the head filed off.  Thus equipped we came to the foot of the cliff, and much to our delight found it one mass of ice from top to bottom.  Now was our chance to try some Swiss mountain climbing.  Bill took the lead, with an old hatchet in his hand, to hack out any necessary footholds in the ice wall, and the rest of us strung out behind him tied to a long rope, each boy about 10 or 12 feet from the one ahead.  Bill cautioned us to keep our distance, holding the rope taut in one hand, so that if a fellow stumbled he could be kept from falling either by the one in front or by the one behind.