THE MUSEUM 



O 



A Monthly Magazine Devoted to Research in Natural Science. 



Vol. III. 



ALBION, N. Y., DECEMBER 15, 1896. 



No. 2 



Notes from the Mohawk's 

 Country. 



p. M. VAN EPPS. 



(XI.) 



THE master-builder's DILEMMA. 



In an overhead corner of our piazza 

 an industrious colony of hornets or 

 "yellow-jackets', built for themselves 

 a habitation, after the fashion adopted 

 by their people. 



Though this paper home was rather 

 close to our door, at certain few times 

 too near for comfort, yet the mandate 

 was issued that they should not be 

 disturbed in their labors; consequently 

 the habitation was completed and oc- 

 cupied for one season only. This was 

 several summers ago. 



The nest was built in an inside an- 

 gle, and instead of hanging freely from 

 one point of suspension was placed 

 right in a corner so ihat It not only 

 was fastened to the ceiling but on two 

 sides was built against the woodwork; 

 consequently it presented in outline 

 the segment only of a circle. 



Monsieur \'espa, the chief architect, 

 having placed this nest in a corner no 

 doubt was troubled at the lack of 

 roundness in the completed habitation; 

 perhaps his people jeered at him for 

 his lack of forethought in so placing 

 his foundations that the finished struct- 

 ure presented such an unusual form. 



What could he do to better matters 

 and pacify this family of primitive pa- 

 per-makers whose sense of the how-it- 

 should -be was outraged.' We shall see. 

 One end of the piazza adjoined a pro- 

 jecting linter; it was at this point that 

 the paper- makers were working. Here, 

 outside of the hanging-board or fascia, 



was another corner formed by the 

 meeting of the hanging-board with the 

 wall of the linter. Something might 

 here be done in the way of making 

 the structure more symmetrical. So 

 the master-mind evidently thought, 

 for his pugnacious people fell to work 

 and threw paper arches across the out- 

 side corner. Though separated from 

 the main edifice by an inch board yet 

 the work went on, until six or eight 

 concentric layers, each slightly longer 

 than its fellows, had been superim- 

 posed. The outer or last one being 

 concentual, or in e.xact harmony with 

 the periphery of the main habitation. 



The offended artistic taste of the 

 colony had been appeased; the idea of 

 roundness and symmetry had been car- 

 ried out in so far as they were able. 

 Evidently for this purpose only had 

 all this extra work been done. For 

 shelter or protection it was not need- 

 ed, neither did these few concentric 

 out-layers shelter or enclose any hab- 

 itable portion of the home. Simply 

 instinct, shall we call it.' Blind, un- 

 reasoning, inward impulse.' "Our 

 fathers thus built their round houses 

 and we their children will also so 

 build." The same powers which in- 

 stinctively induced them to carry out 

 the idea of rotundity at all costs guid- 

 ed them in making accord between the 

 main structure and its separate outer 

 portion. 



Given this same power to man and 

 what need of the trained minds, the 

 elaborate calculations, and the expen- 

 sive instruments used to accurately align 

 the opposing drifts of a Mont Cenis or 

 a Hoosic. For the man a mountain 

 range; for the insect an inch board of 

 pine; both ecjually impenetrable for 



