154 BEES AND BEE TREES. 



tops. Upon a still day, during the summer and autumn 

 season, the traveller through many sections of the forest 

 will frequently be made conscious that the atmosphere 

 is literally filled with countless legions of these tiny 

 creatures ; the constant, deep, sonorous murmur of whose 

 myriad wings sounds above his head like the swarming 

 of some gigantic hive of bees. On looking up, however, 

 where a break in the foliage occurs, there is seldom 

 anything to be seen ; and yet the sound seems to come 

 from everywhere in the expanse overhead; and it is 

 probable that these vast multitudes of flying things 

 live partly on each other, and partly upon a species 

 of manna that is secreted by the leaves of many trees 

 at certain seasons of the year. It sounds, as we have 

 said, like the swarming of bees but bees, so far as 

 we are aware, though very numerous in some parts 

 of the country, more generally affect the outskirts of 

 the great forest, near prairie lands or mountainous 

 barrens covered with heather and other flowering 

 plants, than the depths of the heavy forests. The 

 usual place of their swarming is in the cavity of some 

 hollow tree, where immense masses of honey and combs 

 are sometimes found. The discovery of these bee- 

 trees is a regular trade in parts of North America, 

 which is followed by professional bee-hunters, who 

 catch a bee, and fixing a small feather or bit of straw 

 to it, liberate the captive, and watch its progress through 

 the air, as it passes straight towards the parent hive ; 

 the bee-hunter follows in the same direction, and 

 presently tries a similar experiment on another bee, 

 until at length he succeeds in tracing one to the 

 opening of some hollow tree, which is then felled 

 the concussion of the fall often splitting open the rotten 



