[Illustration: MOKI NOTCHED DOORWAY, SO MADE THAT LARGE BUNDLES COULD BE TAKEN IN The transom was probably at first a smoke outlet ] In all the constructions of the Amerinds of the North-west coast we perceive the powerful influence of surroundings on a primitive people. The region abounds in superb cedars with a grain so fine and straight that the logs can be readily split into slabs a couple of inches thick, that are admirable material for building purposes. Then there are plenty of young straight hemlocks, firs, and cedars for rafters and framework, so that these Amerinds, like those of the cliff region of the South-west, had their building material almost ready made. Being largely fishermen, they were not well supplied with skins, so that it was not easy to make pole lodges covered with them, as was the case with many Amerinds of the interior, where trees were absent or hard to split and where skins were plenty. [Illustration: A ZUÑI CHIMNEY, MOKI THE SAME] [Illustration: ONE FORM OF MOKI CHIMNEY HOOD] In California a variety of houses was built, as there are many different stocks and conditions. The Yokuts made them of tule mats in the shape of an “A” tent with a door at the front. A half dozen or more of these were placed in a row and above them a flat sun-shelter of branches laid on a platform of poles supported by crotched posts set in the ground. Others build a hut of slabs or bark brought to a point and open on one side, like a tipi cut in two. Others again live in wikiups made by covering a square framework with boughs, leaving one side open. When the side of an Amerind hut is left open in this way, the opening always faces the south, except in hot weather, when it generally faces the other way. Another California tribe lives in earth lodges entered from the top through a hole or hatch with steps on the outside. This lodge was made by excavating a couple of feet and putting this earth on the covering framework, for a roof. In the mountains where wood was plenty they frequently used no earth at all, showing how quickly they adapted themselves to circumstances. The Modoc “excavates a circular space from two to four feet deep, then erects over it a rounded structure of poles and puncheons, strongly braced up with timbers, sometimes hewn and squared. The whole is warmly covered with earth, and an aperture left atop, reached by a centre pole. Before the coming of the whites secured them against the constant assaults and incursions of their enemies, their dwellings were slighter, consisting generally of a frame of willow poles, with tule matting overspread.”[190] Another tribe of the Pacific Slope, the Makhelchel, build cabins “of slender willow poles set upright in the ground, with others crossing them horizontally, forming a square lattice-work.”[191] The Yokaya have a lodge or dwelling composed of a “huge framework of willow poles covered with thatch, and resembling a large flattish haystack.” The Karok