"If we could but make some sort of earthen pot that would stand the heat of
the fire," said Louis, "we could get on nicely with cooking." But nothing
like the sort of clay used by potters had been seen, and they were obliged
to give up that thought, and content themselves with roasting or broiling
their food. Louis, however, who was fond of contrivances, made an oven, by
hollowing out a place near the hearth, and lining it with stones, filling
up the intervals with wood ashes and such clay as they could find, beaten
into a smooth mortar. Such cement answered very well, and the oven was
heated by filling it with hot embers; these were removed when it was
sufficiently heated, and the meat or roots placed within, the oven being
covered over with a flat stone previously heated before the fire, and
covered with live coals. This sort of oven had often been described by old
Jacob, as one in common use among some of the Indian tribes in the lower
province, in which they cook small animals, and make excellent meat of
them; they could bake bread also in this oven, if they had had flour
to use.
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