The wigwam of the Algonquins was built in two general ways, using bark or mats for covering. One form is made by planting elastic poles in the ground and bringing their tops together, and binding the whole with horizontal poles. It is unlike the tipi, because it is not portable, because the poles are flexible, and because the sides curve out from bottom to top instead of being straight lines. It is covered with birchbark. It is from ten to sixteen feet in diameter on the ground, and from six to ten feet high. The fire was built, as in the tipi, in the middle of the floor in a slight depression, and the usual outlet for smoke was left at the top. “Such a lodge,” says Morgan, “would accommodate, in the aboriginal plan of living, two and sometimes three married pairs with their children.”[178] The Menominee-Algonquin form of wigwam was made by planting in the ground about three feet apart, approximating the form of an ellipse, strong saplings some two inches in diameter, leaving at each end an opening for a doorway. The poles are then bent over toward each other and tied in an arch with strips of bark. Horizontal poles are tied on to the upright ones for stiffening, and the frame is then covered with bark or mats overlapping each other like shingles. The usual smoke outlet is left in the top. A mat curtain takes the place of a door. There were seldom, or never, regular doors in any Amerind houses on the continent before the Discovery, the opening being closed by curtains or mats. Another Menominee shelter, described by Hoffman, was made by “putting five or six saplings on each side of a parallelogram; the ends are left open, and the top of each sapling on a given side is then bound down over its opposite fellow to form a roof somewhat resembling a wagon-top. Horizontal saplings are then bound around the framework to make the structure secure, and over all are laid, longitudinally, a series of long strips of pine bark the upper pieces overlapping those below, while a large piece is placed over the highest part of the roof, which thus sheds the rain or melting snow.... The bedding is spread on the ground and usually covers the entire floor.”[179]