86 LESSON XI. 



their labourers in a similar manner, and the 

 deep and sonorous notes produced breaking in 

 upon the silence of those mountainous districts, 

 have a very striking effect. In Palestine the bee 

 masters enticed their bees with a whistle made 

 by means of some shell, (probably a Buccinum,) 

 and led them from meadow to meadow to collect 

 their store of sweets. Isaiah seems to refer to 

 this custom when he prophecies the conquests 

 of the Assyrian monarch. " And it shall come 

 to pass in those days that the Lord shall hiss (or 

 whistle) for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. 

 And they shall come, and shall rest all of them 

 in the desolate vallies, and in the holes of the 

 rock, and upon all thorns, and upon all bushes." 

 Isa. vii. 18, 19. 



Various species of turbinated shells, chiefly 

 of the Buccinum or Whelk tribe, are picked up 

 on the shores of the Isle of Wight. They are 

 not found tenanted by their natural inhabitants, 

 who love the deep recesses of the ocean, but by 

 a species of Crab called the Bernard, or Hermit 

 Crab. . This creature curiously exhibits the 

 wonderful operations of animal instinct, whilst he 

 exemplifies in a striking manner the resources of 

 a compensatory Providence. The hinder part 

 of his body is tender and naked, unprotected by 

 that shelly covering which guards his head and 

 anterior extremities ; he would therefore be pe- 

 culiarly liable to injuries were he not endowed 

 with a foresight that directs him most ingeniously 

 to provide against any accident. This Crab 

 seeks for the roomy cavity of some forsaken 



