The Young Queens 



to bottom, during the workers' absence, 

 they would still unhesitatingly direct their 

 course to it from out the far depths of the 

 horizon ; and only when confronted by 

 the unrecognisable threshold would they 

 seem for one instant to pause. Such ex- 

 periments as lie in our power point rather 

 to their guiding themselves by an extraor- 

 dinarily minute and precise appreciation 

 of landmarks. It is not the hive that 

 they seem to remember, but its position, 

 calculated to the minutest fraction, in its 

 relation to neighbouring objects. And so 

 marvellous is this appreciation, so mathe- 

 matically certain, so profoundly inscribed 

 in their memory, that if, after five months' 

 hibernation in some obscure cellar, the 

 hive, when replaced on the platform, 

 should be set a little to right or to left of 

 its former position, all the workers, on 

 their return from the earliest flowers, will 

 infallibly steer their direct and unwavering 



i6 241 



