Here, at the very threshold of Upper Canadian history, was initiated the “institution” of “bees.” “Each with his axe on his shoulder, turned out to help the other,” in erecting a log shanty. Small and unpretending indeed, were these humble tenements first built along the shores of the bay. The size of each depended upon the number to occupy it. None were larger than twenty by fifteen feet; and an old man tells me that his father, who was a carpenter, built one fifteen feet long and ten feet broad, with a slanting roof seven or eight feet in height. The back-woodsman’s shanty, which may yet be seen in the outskirts of our country, is the counterpart of those which were first built; but perhaps many of our readers may never have seen one. “Round logs,” (generally of basswood,) “roughly notched together at the corners, and piled one above another, to the height of seven or eight feet, constituted the walls. Openings for a door, and one small window” (always beside the door) “designed for four lights of glass, 7 × 9, were cut out,” (Government had supplied them with a little glass and putty); “the spaces between the logs were chinked with small splinters, and carefully plastered outside and inside, with clay for mortar. Smooth straight poles were laid lengthways of the building, on the walls, to serve as supports of the roof. This was composed ‘of strips of elm bark, four feet in length, by two or three feet in width, in layers, overlapping each other, and fastened to the poles by withs.’” (The roof was some times of black oak, or swamp oak, bark,) “with a sufficient slope to the back, this formed a roof which was proof against wind and weather. An ample hearth, made of flat stones, was then laid out, and a fire back of field stone or small boulders, rudely built, was carried up as high as the walls. Above this the chimney was formed of round poles, notched together and plastered with mud. The floor was of the same materials as the walls, only that the logs were split in two, and flattened so as to make a tolerably even surface. As no boards were to be had to make a door, until they could be sawn out by the whip saw, a blanket suspended from the inside for some time took its place. By and by four little pains of glass, were stuck into a rough sash, and then the shanty was complete.”—(_Croil._)