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others; but these are known to only a certain number. All that we pretend to, is the endeavour to establish these principles on so sure a footing, by means of experiments, that there may be no excuse in future for the practice of destroying Bees; and, secondly, to show how straw Hives may be made by cottagers for themselves, in which Bees may be prevented swarming, and pure honey obtained with little or no additional expense to that incurred on the old plan.

Popular objection answered.—That our system would encourage too great an increase in Bee-population: see "The Cottager's Bee-book," by Mr. Smith, of Queenington.

It is objected that if Bees are never destroyed they will go on increasing interminably, and in a short time will overstock the country, so that, after a certain lapse of time, our land will be in the same condition as that described by Herodotus, where no people could live for the quantity of Bees that were in it. The fallacy of this notion will appear by a little reflection. In every stock of Bees there is only one Queen, who lays all the eggs of the stock, and of these only a certain definite number. It is well known that Bees live only one year; so that in the course of two seasons a generation of Bees has passed away and a new one succeeded it. It follows, therefore, that in every stock only a sufficient number of young ones will be brought up to replace those that have died in the common course of nature. H. W. LLOYD.

Collateral Straw Hives.-I do not think that the collateral system in straw Hives can ever answer. It is impossible to cut out any of the rings of straw at the bottom, in order to fit in a wooden passage or communication-board, without spoiling the Hive. The doubling-board certainly seems to answer, but then it is too expensive for cottagers. The Nadir Hive plan must be the one, if any, to supersede the old one of swarming and burning. H. W. LLOYD.

Pasteboard Hives.-Mr. Drewitt, to whom the paper-mill at the Weirs belongs, offers to make square pasteboard Hives, at sixpence a-piece. I see no reason why they should not answer

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formed by nature to serve him, whenever he shall see fit to employ them, as to be subject to his directions, and to fly obedient to his call in as orderly a manner as sheep obey the voice of their shepherd. As the herdsman, by the winding of his horn, draws forth horses, mules, goats, &c. from their stalls, and by a second signal leads them to water, and by a third reconducts them home, in like manner the master of the Hives, by a blast of his whistle, can call all the Bees of the village after him, conducting them by this signal sometimes into one field of flowers, sometimes into another, thus taking them by turns, in order to give the flowers time to recruit their stock of sweets, and thereby afford the Bees a fresh repast. With another blast of his whistle he leads them back to their Hives, when either impending rains or the approach of night gives warning to sound a retreat.

This was a very common, as well as ancient, practice in the East, and to this the prophet Isaiah alludes when comparing the enemies which God brings upon any nation to afflict it, to a swarm of Bees which a shepherd calls or dismisses by a signal given. He says, "The Lord shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the Bee that is in the land of Assyria."* This custom did still subsist in Asia in the fourth and fifth centuries, and St. Cyril speaks of it as a thing very common in his time, and which he had very often seen.

BEES IN SURINAM.

On the 16th I was visited by a neighbouring gentleman, whom I conducted up my ladder; but he had no sooner entered my aërial dwelling than he leaped down from the top to the ground, roaring like a madman with agony and

Isa. vii. 18.

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pain, after which he instantly plunged his head into the river; but, looking up, I soon discovered the cause of his distress to be an immense nest of wild Bees, or Wassee Wassee, in the thatch, directly above my head, as I stood within my door, when I immediately took to my heels as he had done, and ordered them to be destroyed by my slaves without delay. A tar mop was now brought, and the devastation just going to commence, when an old negro stepped up, and offered to receive any punishment I should decree, if even one of these Bees should sting me in person. "Massa," said he, "they would have stung you long ere now had you been a stranger to them; but they, being your tenants, that is, gradually allowed to build upon your premises, they assuredly know both you and yours, and will never hurt either you or them." I instantly assented to the proposition, and, tying the old man to a tree, ordered my boy Quaco to ascend the ladder quite naked, which he did, and was not stung. I then ventured to follow; and declare, upon my honour, that even after shaking the nest, which made the inhabitants buzz about my ears, not a single one attempted to sting me. I next released the old negro, and rewarded him with a gallon of rum and four shillings for the discovery. This swarm of Bees I since kept unhurt, as my body guard, and they have made many overseers take a desperate leap for my amusement, as I generally sent them up my ladder on some frivolous message, when I wished to punish them for injustice and cruelty, which was not seldom.

"Inter apes heu! inter et aves concordia."-ANON.

The above negro assured me that on his master's estate was a tree, in which had been lodged, ever since he could remember, a society of birds and another of Bees, who lived in the greatest harmony together; but should any strange birds come to disturb or feed on the Bees, they were instantly repulsed by their feathered allies; and if strange

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Bees dared to venture near the birds' nests, the native swarm attacked the invaders, and stung them to death;—that his master and family had so much respect for the above association, that the tree was considered as sacred, and was not to be touched by an axe until it should yield to all-destroying time. (The above stories are extracted from Capt. Stedman's Surinam, vol. ii. p. 236.)

"The Bee is but small among the foules, yet doth her fruit passe in sweetnesse.”

ECCLESIASTICUs, xi. 3; Bible, ed. 1603.

These Heaven-instructed mathematicians, before any geometer could calculate under what form a cell would occupy the least space without diminishing its capacity, and before any chemist existed to discover how wax might be elaborated from vegetable sweets, instructed by the Fountain of Wisdom, had built their hexagonal cells of that pure material, had closed them at the bottom with three rhomboidal pieces, and were enabled without study so to construct the opposite story of combs, that each of these rhomboids should form one of those of the opposed cells, thus giving strength to the structure that in no other place could have been given. Wise in their government, diligent and active in their employments, devoted to their young and to their Queen, they read a lecture to mankind that exemplifies their Oriental name, she that speaketh. Whoever examines their external structure, will find every part adapted to their various employments.-Kirby, vol. ii. p. 328.