Hutch

“ Around three sides of the building hutches in tiers should be arranged, the lowest tier being placed some few inches from the ground. The size of the hutches will be dependent upon the number of rabbits and the particular purpose for which they are required, but should not be less than 20 in. in width, constructed of white deal, with a gradual slope from the front to the back of the hutch, the latter being provided with a zinc gutter. ”

“ Then if meant to stand under cover, in, say, an outhouse, you simply make a doorway and cover it with galvanized iron network, price about twopence a yard, and cover all the front, with the exception of about a foot (this to be covered with wood) , with the same kind of network. The bottom of the box should be covered with zinc for cleanliness’ sake. This is an ordinary hutch. The breeding hutch is different, as there must be a dark retiring room for the mother and young. The floors of hutches ought to slant a little forwards, and they ought to be always well raised off the ground.
Fig. ”

“ The rabbit is a rapid grower and very prolific and is, in fact, the only animal known to us that reproduces its own weight so rapidly.
It is possible, even when very conservative, to produce as much as 400 pounds of rabbit meat on a space of ground only 3x6 feet in size within one year. The rabbit does not require large houses and runs or pastures as do other forms of live stock. In fact, the domesticated rabbit is a hutch rabbit and it really does better under confinement in the proper kind of a hutch than it does where it has more liberty. ”

“ Each settlement had a meadow, for the mowing of hay, and a simple mill, with round timber huts, covered with branches or thatch or turf supported by a ring of posts. Inside was a hearth with smoke going up through a hole in the roof, and a cauldron for cooking food. There was an upright loom in the darkness. The floor was swept clean. At the door were spears or bags of slingstones ready for immediate use. The King lived in the largest hut. Gullies outside carried off excess water. Each hut had a garden for fruit and vegetables. A goat or cow might be tied out of reach of the garden. ”

“ On the floor of the hut is a heap of fine, twisting tree-roots which she brought from the forest yesterday, and under the shadow of her grassy roof she sits before the door weaving them into strong, neat baskets, like the one in which the men carried their dinner when they went to hunt. While she works other women come too with their work, sit beside her in the shade, and chatter away in a very queer-sounding language. ”

“ Perched on the perilous brink of that curving wall of rocks, with its low, irregular, patched and weather-beaten roof, and its rough-boarded and storm-beaten walls half hidden in a tangle of vines and bushes, the little hut looks, from a distance, as though it might once have been the strange habitation of some gigantic winged creature of prehistoric ages. ”

“ The way led through the native huts and without them. It was downhill going, as the village, in African fashion, was built on the side of a rise which culminated in the chief’s hut, while Mwezi lived, very close to the source of the river I have mentioned. We emerged through trees into a grassy open space of perhaps thirty paces wide, and I saw at once the old fellow sitting at the door of his hut beneath the shade of a wild vine which grew luxuriantly over the porch and roof. ”

“ Summer huts are light portable buildings, thrown up during hunting excursions in the interior, or on the sea-beach in the fishing-season. A frame is made of stakes driven into the ground, supporting a roof, and the whole covered with bark, or with green or dry branches, and skins or bark over all. The door is closed by bark or a curtain of skins. Each hut 103 is the rendezvous for a small colony, frequently covering twenty or thirty persons, all under the direction of one chief. ”

“ These natives have a curious predilection for building their huts on the sea-shore, and place them below the level of low water. They begin this curious style of architecture by building a long pier, or rather jetty, which extends far into the sea, and which keeps open a communication between the house and the shore.
At the end of this jetty the hut itself is situated, and is made of boarded walls and a thatched roof. Great as is the labor that is bestowed upon it, the house does not come up to our ideas of comfort. ”

“ The newly married couple at once take possession of a new, small hut, which has been erected for them. These huts are made with a light frame of poles, the sides and roof being heavily thatched with reeds. They are by no means warm or impervious to the weather; indeed, many breaks in the thatching admit of ventilation to a degree that must lower the temperature in winter to a point well-nigh unbearable. ”

“ One huge slab of granite, some twelve feet long and six feet wide, forms half the roof of the larger hut; the remainder has fallen in.
On the other side of Brown Willy, the west side, at no great distance from the source of the river Fowey, is another beehive hut, not absolutely perfect, but nearly so; one course and the smoke-hole coverer have fallen in on one side. The doors to these hovels are so low that he who enters one must crawl on hands and knees. ”

“ As a rule, the climate is so warm that houses are but little needed, all that is required being a simple roof above the head. The ordinary kind of hut is nothing more than a mere shed, a sort of barn without the walls, supported on posts and thatched with leaves. From the posts and rafters are hung the personal goods of the natives, such as fans, paddles, clubs, blow guns, bows and arrows, and similar articles, while from one or two of the cross-beams is sure to be hanging the singular cassava press, which will be presently described. ”

“ This is far too fine a trough for a tumble-down hut like ours. Why, there is scarcely a place in the roof where the rain does not come through. If we were to keep this trough in such a hut, it would be spoiled in a month. You must go back to your fish and ask it for a new hut. ”

“ After proceeding about an hour and a half we reached the village in the wood, which is the winter residence of the inhabitants of Mih-Tutta-Hang-Kush. We stopped at the hut of Mr. Kipp's father-in-law, Mandeek-Suck-Choppenik (the medicine bird) , who accommodated us with a night's lodging. The description of this hut may serve for all the winter huts of these Indians. [21] It was about twenty paces in diameter, and circular: h is the fence or wall of the hut, supported inside by strong, low posts, on which rests the vaulted roof, which has a square hole to let the smoke escape ”

“ Their custom increased from day to day, and all that were disappointed, discontented, or unlucky, came to the hut as in old times, before Spare went to court.
"The rich brought them presents, the poor did them service. The hut itself changed, no one knew how. Flowering honeysuckle grew over its roof; red and white roses grew thick about its door. Moreover, the Christmas Cuckoo always came on the first of April, bringing three leaves of the merry tree—for Scrub and Fairfeather would have no more golden ones. ”

“ On the 5th a number of the natives came on board, according to promise, to rebuild the hut in a more substantial manner, and to put a plate of ice into the roof, as a window, which they did with great quickness as well as care, several of the women cheerfully assisting in the labour. The men seemed to take no small pride in showing in how expeditious and workmanlike a manner they could perform this; and the hut, with its outer passage, was soon completed. From this time they were in the constant habit of coming freely to the ships ”

“ The huts are long and low, with an arched roof, and vary in length from ten to twenty feet, with an average height of five feet, and a width of six. They consist of a neat framework of strips of bamboo, thatched with long coarse grass. Each hut is usually situated in a small well-fenced enclosure, and opposite to it on the beach is the cooking place, consisting of a small shed, under which the fire is made. ”

“ A moment shows you a long hut, formed of logs of wood, with a roof of branches, covered by birch-bark, and by its side, or near the fire, several nondescript sties or pens, apparently for keeping pigs in, formed of branches close to the ground, either like a boat turned upside down, or literally as a pigsty is formed, as to shape. ”

“ This was our only misadventure, however, and about four o’clock we came in sight of the watcher’s hut—a two-roomed wooden shanty, knocked up in the roughest way possible, standing on the edge of the shingle, with a big brown bear-skin stretched over the roof to dry. A more utterly miserable-looking hut cannot well be conceived ”

“ Not even the solid Highland hut can withstand the violence of the wind in this region. The dwelling is, therefore, excavated in the earth, the wall requisite for the support of the roof scarcely rising two feet above the surface, and the whole is surrounded with turf stacks to ward off the gales. ”

“ A square opening, closing with a shutter, admits light into each room, and short logs of wood or rude benches, serve for seats. Many families that have been brought up in England in respectable circumstances, live for several years in a hut of this description, until they can find time and means to build themselves a better habitation; and a hut of this kind is generally to be seen contiguous to a better house, and is occupied by the male servants, who are mostly prisoners. ”

“ And we were right glad to find shelter, in spite of the fact that both the hut and its furniture looked like the first attempts of primitive man to scale the ladder of civilization. The night we spent on the hard ground was not a very restful one, and we were glad when the approach of day called us from our layer.
When we left the hut a surprising spectacle met our eyes. The fog which had deprived us of any possibility of obtaining a view the evening before now lay at our feet in the valley. The summits of the mountain rose like islands in the sea of mist. ”

“ I have thus, by giving a detailed account of one individual hut, endeavoured to obtain something fixed to start from in varying the description, so as to make it more general. Some huts are better and many worse, than what I have described: it is rather under than over the usual size—the mode mentioned of dividing sitting-room and bed-room by a screen is almost universal. I only allude to bachelor's huts; where married people reside in the bush, there is of course much more accommodation. Slabs are the most common material for building. ”

“ The huts here are like those already described, only they are dry because of the porous character of the ground. Three or four families live in one each having a private polog of deer-skins, of which there are several thicknesses on the floor. We were shown into one—the snuggest storm nest imaginable, and perfectly clean. The common hut is far otherwise; dogs mingle with the food, hair is everywhere, and strangely persistent smells that defy even the Arctic frosts. The children seemed in fair ratio with the adults. ”

“ I've nice jobs you could be doing—gathering shells to make a white-wash for our hut within, building up a little goose-house, or stretching a new skin on an old curragh I have; and if my hut is far from all sides, it's there you'll meet the wisest old men, I tell you, at the corner of my wheel, and it's there yourself and me will have great times whispering and hugging. ”

“ The average hut is so low that one can look over its roof when seated on a camel. It seldom contains more than one or two rooms, and usually has a little yard outside where the children and the chickens roll about in the dust and where the donkey is sometimes tied. ”

“ Contrary to our expectation we found the inside of the huts perfectly clean, and we voted unanimously that the Bari women are good house-keepers, for they do all the work about the dwellings. The walls are of wattles, or reeds, and small withes woven together. The outside of the hut is thatched with grass, and the inside is plastered with cement made from the clay of the ant-hills mixed with ashes, and worked into a paste with water. Outside of the hut there is a little court-yard, with a fence around it, and paved with the same kind of cement that we saw on the walls. ”

“ The hut is of clay, with a roof of thatch, which makes it cooler than the store with its roof of galvanised iron. White ants are usually at work upon the clay walls, sending down little showers of dust upon the sleeper. ”

“ There are no interior props in the hut. The hearth is in the middle of the hut, enclosed with a raised rim of mud or termites' earth, hard and smooth like the floor, about two inches high. On the right side looking from the door is a place where implements, etc. are stored, marked off with a similar rim, forming an arc and joining the side of the hut at its two ends. This rim, we were informed, was used as a pillow. From its centre, a little way towards the centre of the hearth, a branch rim runs, the end of which, conveniently near to the fire, is made into a circle used as a stand for a pot. ”

“ One awesome night, dark as pitch, when I lay awake in the hut and listened to the rain pouring and the rush of Roaring Creek as it carried its rain-swollen waters into the Arthur River, my thoughts veered round to the perennial scone. The rats that night were holding high carnival. They had discovered some figs in my swag. Among the bric-à-brac in the men’s hut, which was our kitchen, dining-room, and drawing-room in one, I had noticed a frying-pan with a large hole in the bottom. ”