Canadian anthropologist Wilson Duff quotes Simon Fraser, who (upon observation of the Coast Salish homes on the banks of the now named Fraser River) wrote in his 1800 journal; "as an excellent house 46 × 32 and constructed like American frame houses; the planks are three to 4 inches thick, each plank overlapping the adjoining one a couple of inches; the post, which are very strong and crudely carved, received across beams; the walls are 11 feet high and covered with a slanting roof. On the opposite side of the river there is a considerable village with houses similar to the one on the side." Kenneth Ames, contributor to "Life in the Big House; Household Labor and Dwelling Size on the Northwest Coast", calculates the volume of wood in this house to exceed half a million board feet (1,200 m³). A multi-family house found in Nanaimo, on the eastern coast of Vancouver Island, Canada, is documented as being made of split cedar planks that were "held in place by withes (cedar rope) that come from the long lower branches of Cedar trees that grow in open spaces." (Fraser)