APID^ — BEES. 199 



valleys below to the fresh pasture revived by the summer 

 sun, in the natural parterres and patches of meadow-land 

 formed at the foot of crumbling rocks, and sheltered by them 

 from mountain storms; and so difficult sometimes is this 

 transfer to be accomplished, that the sheep have to be slung 

 by means of ropes from one cliff to another before they can 

 be stationed on the little grass-plot above. ^ A similar 

 artificial migration (if we may use the term), continues the 

 author of the Miscellanies, is effected in some countries by 

 the proprietors of Beehives, who remove them from one 

 district to another, that they may find abundance of flowers, 

 and by this means prolong the summer. Sometimes this 

 transfer is performed by persons forming an ambulatory es- 

 tablishment, like that of a gipsy horde, and encamping 

 wherever flowers are found plentiful. Bee-caravans of this 

 kind are reported to be not uncommon in some districts of 

 Germany ;^ and in parts of Greece,^ Italy, and France,* the 

 transportation of Bees was practiced from very early times. 

 But a more singular practice in such transportation was to 

 set the Beehives afloat in a canal or river, and we are in- 

 formed that, in France, one Bee-barge was built of capacity 

 enough for from sixty to one hundred hives, and by floating 

 gently down the river, the Bees had an opportunity of 

 gathering honey from the flowers along the banks. ^ 



An instance of Bees being kept in this singular manner is 

 found in the following quotation from the London Times, 

 1830: "As a small vessel was proceeding up the Channel 

 from the coast of Cornwall, and running near the land, some 

 of the sailors observed a swarm of Bees on an island ; they 

 steered for it, landed, and took the Bees on board ; succeeded 

 in hiving them immediately, and proceeded on their voyage ; 



1 Voyages dans les Alpes. Ins. 3fisc., p. 262. 



2 Brookes mentions the Duchy of Juliers, a district of Westphalia, 

 Germany. — Nat. Hist, of Ins., p. 160. 



3 Columella says the Greeks were accustomed, every year, to re- 

 move the hives from Achaia into Attica. — Ibid. 



* One person in particular, in the territory called Gatonois, has 

 been at the pains of removing his hives, after the harvest of Sain- 

 foin, into the plains of Beauce, where the melilot abounds, and 

 thence into Sologne, where it is well known the Bees may enjoy 

 the advantage of buckwheat, till toward the end of September, for 

 so long that plant retains its flowers. — Ibid. 



^ Ins. Misc., p. 262. 



