WILD BEES OF AMERICAN FORESTS 265 



This wax always commands a sale at a remunerative 

 price ; in fact the supply is less than the demand for 

 it, or was at the time of which I am writing. I did not 

 satisfactorily ascertain the reason of this, or whether the 

 consumption was entirely a home one ; but beeswax 

 seemed to be used for many other purposes than those 

 to which it is usually applied in England. 



The means of collecting it by the bee-hunter is 

 invariably to fell the tree in which they have found a 

 nest, as the colony of wild bees is termed. The bees are 

 then suffocated with thick smoke raised by burning grass, 

 &c. The weight of comb found in a nest varies from four 

 or five pounds to as much as forty. I have met a negro 

 carrying a ball of wax weighing at least half a hundred- 

 weight, the produce of a single day's labour, and represent- 

 ing the spoils of half-a-dozen nests. 



The discovery of the nests is often a work of some 

 difficulty, as they are generally placed high up the tree, 

 and the time of hunting being the summer, when the 

 trees are in full foliage, they cannot be seen from the 

 ground. The favourite mode of hunting is to follow a 

 bee. The little creature is sure to make for its home as 

 soon as it has obtained a sufficient load of nectar. In 

 following a single bee many ludicrous scenes often occur. 

 The insect is so small, and flies so high when making for 

 its nest, that the eye must be kept constantly fixed on it, or 

 it will be lost sight of, and as it flies at a goodly rate, it is 

 not an easy task to keep it in view. The hunter often 

 has to run like a mad fellow, dodging and turning with 

 the movements of the bee, and every now and then 

 stumbling over fallen tree-trunks or clumps of brambles. 

 At length the bee disappears amid the foliage of a tree, 

 perhaps sixty or eighty feet above the ground, but it is 

 by no means certain that the nest is there. The bee may 

 simply have passed among the branches and flown out 

 unseen on the opposite side, and the hunter have had 

 his long and tiring run for nothing ; or the nest may be 



