The Life of the Bee 



anterior legs, those that follow hang on to 

 the first, and so in succession, until long 

 chains have been formed that serve as a 

 bridge to the crowd that rises and rises. 

 And, by slow degrees, these chains, as 

 their number increases, supporting each 

 other and incessantly interweaving, be- 

 come garlands which, in their turn, the 

 uninterrupted and constant ascension 

 transforms into a thick, triangular curtain, 

 or rather a kind of compact and inverted 

 cone, whose apex attains the summit of 

 the cupola, while its widening base de- 

 scends to a half, or two-thirds, of the 

 entire height of the hive. And then, the 

 last bee that an inward voice has impelled 

 to form part of this group having added 

 itself to the curtain suspended in darkness, 

 the ascension ceases ; all movement slowly 

 dies away in the dome ; and, for long 

 hours, this strange inverted cone will wait, 

 in a silence that almost seems awful, in a 

 1.34 



