336 TRANSPORTATION. 



from the different villages and conveyed up the Nile, 

 marked and numbered by the individuals to whom 

 they belong, are heaped pyramidally upon the boats 

 prepared to receive them, which, floating gradually 

 down the river, and stopping at certain stages of 

 their passage, remain there a longer or shorter time, 

 according to the produce which is afforded by the 

 surrounding country. After traveling three months 

 in this manner, the bees having culled the perfumes 

 of the orange flowers of the Saio, and essence of 

 roses of the Faicum, the treasures of the Arabian 

 jessamines, and a variety of flowers, are brought back 

 about the beginning of February to the places from 

 which they had been carried. 



" The productiveness of the flowers at each respect- 

 ive stage, is ascertained by the gradual descent of the 

 boats in the water, and is probably noted by a scale 

 of measurement. 



" This industry procures for the Egyptians delicious 

 honey and abundance of beeswax. The proprietors, 

 in return, pay the boatmen a recompense proportion- 

 ate to the number of hives which have thus been car- 

 ried about from one extremity of Egypt to the other. 

 Latreille states that between Cairo and Damietta, a 

 convoy of four thousand hives was seen upon the Nile, 

 by Niebuhr, on their transit from the upper to the 

 lower districts of that country. 



" Floating bee-hives were formerly common also in 

 France. One barge was capable of containing from 

 sixty to a hundred hives ; which, floating gently down 



