THE PASTORAL BEES. 83 
thus assert their independence forms quite a large 
per cent. In the Northern States these swarms very 
often perish before spring; but in such a country as 
Florida they seem to multiply, till bee-trees are very 
common. In the West, also, wild honey is often 
gathered in large quantities. 1 noticed not long 
since, that some wood-choppers on the west slope 
of the Coast Range felled a tree that had several pail- 
fuls in it. 
One night on the Potomac a party of us unwit- 
tingly made our camp near the foot of a bee-tree, 
which next day the winds of heaven blew down, for 
our special delectation, at least so we read the sign. 
Another time while sitting by a waterfall in the leaf- 
less April woods I discovered a swarm in the top of 
a large hickory. I had the season before remarked 
the tree as a likely place for bees, but the screen of 
leaves concealed them from me. This time my former 
presentiment occurred to me, and, looking sharply, 
sure enough there were the bees, going out and ina 
large, irregular opening. In June a violent tempest 
of wind and rain demolished the tree, and the honey 
was all lost in the creek into which it fell. I hap- 
pencd along that way two or three days after the 
tornado, when I saw a remnant of the swarm, those, 
doubtless, that escaped the flood and those that were 
away when the disaster came, hanging in a small 
black mass to a branch high up near where their 
home used to be, They looked forlorn enough. If 
_ the queen was saved the remnant probably sought 
another tree ; otherwise the bees have soon died. 
I have seen bees desert their hive in the spring 
when it was infested with worms, or when the honey 
was exhausted; at such times the swarm seems to 
