=Dwellings=: Both styles of house were used as dwellings; which one was used depended upon the season of the year. The larger house was a winter dwelling, the type used when the various constituent families of a village met to live together for that season. Dimensions varied, depending upon the size of the group that was living in the house.[279] They are described as being about thirty feet wide and ranging from fifty to one hundred feet in length.[280] Each family unit that lived in the house had its own fireplace, and a smoke hole was left in the roof over each of these.[281] There was a door at each end of the house.[282] During the summer, when the Wampanoags were engaged in gardening, ocean fishing, and shellfish collecting, the smaller, round house was used. This is the sort of house, probably occupied by one or two nuclear family units, that early explorers saw strung out along the New England coast.[283] The size of the house varied according to the number of people to be fit in. Fifteen to twenty feet would probably be a good estimate of average diameter.[284] The fireplace was located in the center of the floor, and above it was a smoke hole about one and a half feet across, which had a mat to cover it when the wind was strong.[285] Doorways were low—about a yard high—and had a mat or bark covering.[286] The location of the door was shifted as the wind changed; several panels were left with detachable coverings for this purpose.[287] Some Indians got boards and nails from the English and made doors and bolts for their wigwams after the fashion of the colonists. Both kinds of doors were fastened at night or if the family were leaving for a journey. In the latter case, the last one to leave fastened the door from the inside and left the house via the smoke hole.[288] House frames for both styles of house were lashed together. One material mentioned for this use was walnut bark.[289] The outer covering of the house was either bark or matting. The mats were made of coarse grasses such as flagg or bulrush by sewing or weaving.[290] The bark used for house coverings was birch or chestnut.[291] It was removed from the trees when the “sap was up”. Sheets of green bark were placed under heavy logs to keep them from curling while they dried.[292] Bark-covered houses were considered to be warmer and preferable to those covered with mats.[293]