Vice-President of the German-speaking 

 Association of Bee-Keepers of North- 

 ern Swisse, who is also the lecturer on 

 bee-keeping for the Association, was 

 here to welcome us, and we enjoyed the 

 visit very much till it was interrupted 

 by a telegram requiring him to leave for 

 home at once on account of the serious 

 illness of his beloved mother. On the 

 morning after our arrival friend Ber- 

 trand called us out into his beautiful 

 lawn, where at the top of his flag-staff 

 was flying the American flag in honor 

 of our visit, and there it remained until 

 after our departure. We shall never 

 forget our visit at friend Bertrand's— 

 we arrived very weary with our long 

 journey and were shown every atten- 

 tion by him and his estimable lady, 

 Madame Bertrand. 



After a day's rest, in company with 

 the President and Secretary of the So- 

 ciety d'Apiculture Romand, Swisse, we 

 went to the Lausanne and attended the 

 meeting of the Society. The discussions 

 were very interesting, and the display 

 of honey and apiarian implements was 

 a credit to this young but energetic So- 

 ciety. We were received with the 

 utmost cordiality. The Secretary's re- 

 port of this meeting will be found on 

 another page.* We explained American 

 honey resources, implements, and man- 

 agement of the apiary, in several 

 speeches, and the Society passed (with 

 enthusiastic Swiss honors) a vote of 

 thanks to the North American Bee- 

 Keepers' Association for its kind con- 

 sideration in sending a representative 

 to the Bee Associations of Europe, and 

 particularly to the Society d'Apiculteur 

 Romand, Swisse. By no means is 

 Switzerland behind any other country 

 of Europe in the matter of apiculture. 



ITALY. 



Our space forbids us speaking of all 

 the interesting incidents of our jour- 

 ney, and of the places we have visited — 

 of the Americanized city of Geneva, 

 sitting like a queen of beauty at the 

 foot of the magnificent lake of the same 



This report, as prepared for the American Bee 

 JOURNAL, will be found on page 474. 



name ; of Turin, the capital of Pied- 

 mont, with palaces, churches, and acad- 

 emies of science and art ; of Genoa, 

 one of the chief ports of Italy, with its 

 picturesque scenery, views of the Medi- 

 terranean Sea, and Cathedral and 

 Tower of Santa Maria de Cavignano ; 

 of Pisa, with its ancient leaning tower 

 and cathedral of 1,000 years' standing ; 

 of Rome, with two of the most magnifi- 

 cent churches on earth (St. Peter and 

 the new St. Paul), the Colosseum, the 

 Pantheon, the Forum of Trajan, the 

 Theatre of Marcellus, the Temple of 

 Fortune, the tombs of the ancient Em- 

 perors, the Obelisks brought there from 

 Egypt (one said to be 8,000 years old as 

 deciphered from its hieroglyphics), and 

 thousands of other historic monuments, 

 buildings and valuable stones and rel- 

 ics; of Florence (founded 2,000 years 

 ago), the home of science and learning, 

 and associated with such names as 

 Dante, Galileo, Michael Angelo, Raph- 

 ael, and others, whose learning and 

 works of arts have received the adora- 

 tion of a world for scores of ages ; of 

 Bologna, noted for its old University, 

 leaning towers and academy of art ; of 

 Milan, with its magnificent city and 

 enchanting summer gardens ; of Ven- 

 ice, the ancient city of rapturous song, 

 built on 117 islands, connected by 378 

 bridges for foot passengers, all traffic 

 being done on the streets of water in 

 gondolas (boats of peculiar construc- 

 tion), of which there are over 3,000 ever 

 plying on the water streets. In the 

 midst of the labyrinth of canals and 

 streets there are several large piazzas, 

 nearly all of them adorned with splen- 

 did churches or magnificent palaces — 

 the principal one being the Piazza of 

 San Marco, surrounded by elegant 

 buildings and containing the Church of 

 San Marco, a singular but brilliant com- 

 bination of the Gothic and the Orien- 

 tal styles of architecture, is said to con- 

 tain the relics of St. Mark, the stone on 

 which John the Baptist was beheaded, 

 a piece of the Cross of Christ, and a 

 bit of the skull of John the Baptist. 

 Connecting the Palace of St. Mark with 



