188 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



only half the number to collect it, that it would amount 

 to more than a pound ; so that in one season, one such 

 hive might collect a hundred pounds =*. What a won- 

 derful idea does this give of the industry and activity of 

 these little useful creatures 1 And what a lesson do they 

 read to the members of societies that have both reason 

 and religion to guide their exertions for the common 

 good ! Adorable is that Great Being who has gifted 

 them with instincts, which render them as instructive to 

 us, if we will condescend to listen to them, as they are 

 pi'ofi table. 



"While I am upon this part of the story of bees, I 

 cannot pass over the account Reaumur has given from 

 Maillet of the transportation of hives in Egypt from one 

 place to another, before alluded to**, to enable them to 

 make in greater abundance their collections of honey, &c. 

 Towards the end of October, when the inundations of 

 the Nile have ceased, and the husbandmen can sow their 

 land, saintfoin is one of the first things that is sown ; 

 and as Upper Egypt is warmer than the Lower, the 

 saintfoin gets there first into blossom. At this time, 

 bee-hives are transported in boats from all parts of Egypt 

 into the upper district, and are there heaped in pyramids 

 upon the boats prepared to receive them ; each being 

 numbered by the individual to whom it belongs. In 

 this station they remain some days; and when they are 

 judged to have got in the harvest of honey and pollen 

 that is to be collected there, they are removed two or 

 three leagues lower down, where they remain the same 

 time ; and so they proceed till towards the middle of Fe- 

 bruary, when having traversed Egypt, they arrive at the 

 ' Reaum. v. 434— " Vol. I. 331. Rcaum. v. 608- - 



