Vanden Heuvel on the Honey Bees of Guiana, &c. 83 
paeseseis of the least experience in the country. Even the 
ewness of its numbers may fairly be questioned ; at least if 
America, describes the Bee, in connection with the Beaver, 
&c. “as one of those productions almost peculiar to Ameri- 
ca,” an opinion very extraordinary, when contrasted with 
the hypothesis of Raynal, and which could have arisen only 
from his observation of such numbers of this insect, as sur- 
passed in his belief the swarms of the old world. Their 
mode of depositing their honey is indeed peculiar, and oc- 
easioned solely by local causes. Instead of concealing it in 
the hollow of a tree, or suspending their hives from the 
branches, they place:it in a hole made in the ground, their 
object being to preserve it from the attacks of tigers. With 
reference to the southern portion of North-America, I take 
liberty also, of presenting an anecdote I accidentally met 
with, illustrative of the existence of Bees in that quarter. 
In Roberts’ History of Florida, it is. mentioned that in the 
Expedition of Ferdinand De Soto, for the conquest of that 
territory in 1539, his army, after a fatiguing march of some 
ney in the 
been accounted for by Raynal, without hazard- 
+ . ae ee 1 etc 
ing the idea of their gr 7 ther continent, 
by reflecting that the nature of the climate was less favoura- 
? TEgIONs ; Tout 
rope, though they are cultivated to some extent in the north- 
erm parts, they are more the objects of the attention of man, 
