It had been constructed for three families.

There were three fireplaces and three beds and a kind of larder for the purpose of keeping fish.

The whole "lodge" was twenty feet long by three wide, and had three doors.

The walls were formed of straight spruce timbers with some skill of carpentry.

The roof was covered with bark, and large rods were fixed across the upper part of the building, where fish might hang and dry.
As they continued to descend the Fraser River, with here and there a rapid which nearly swamped the canoe, and lofty cliffs of red and white clay like the ruins of ancient castles (stopping on their way to bury supplies of pemmican against their return, and to light a fire on the top of the burial place so as to mislead bears or other animals that might dig it up), they were more or less compelled to seek intercourse with the new tribes of Amerindians, whose presence on the river banks was obvious.