194 MANAGEMENT IN SPRING. 



ature of the atmosphere, and the temperament of the 

 body which is stung ; and he tells us farther, that 

 the bees are more peaceably disposed in temperate 

 climates, than in those where the heat is extreme.* 

 For this he gives the authority of the Abbe del la 

 Rocca, who asserts that these insects are not so irrit- 

 able in the comparatively moderate climate of France, 

 as they are in the Grecian Islands where he had re- 

 sided ; and in proof of this he gives one or two an- 

 ecdotes which are worthy of being recorded. A 

 small privateer with 40 or 50 men, having on board 

 some hives made of earthen-ware full of bees, was 

 pursued by a Turkish galley manned by 500 seamen 

 and soldiers. As soon as the latter came alongside, 

 the crew of the privateer mounted the rigging with 

 their hives, and hurled them down upon the deck of 

 the galley. The Turks, astonished at this novel 

 mode of warfare, and unable to defend themselves 

 from the stings of the enraged bees, became so terri- 

 fied, that they thought of nothing but how to escape 

 their fury ; while the crew of the small vessel, de- 

 fended by masks and gloves, flew upon their enemies 

 sword in hand, and captured the vessel almost with- 

 out resistance. The Abbe's next anecdote is nearly 

 as extraordinary. When Amurath, the Turkish 

 emperor, during the siege of Alba Greeca, had bat- 

 tered down part of the wall, and was about to take 

 the town by assault, he found the breach defended 



* This is an error, if we may believe the accounts which 

 travellers within the tropics have given of the bees in those 

 regions. 



