1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



425 



would bring them out individually. This, I 

 fear, I did not succeed in doing. However, I 

 send what I have obtained. 



If the bee-friends could but see these beau- 

 tiful bees as I saw them through field-glasses 

 they would want to have them, if only for 

 their beauty. At thirty feet the}' seemed 

 about an inch long, and every bee looked like 

 a five-banded Italian queen. The comb was 

 completely hidden by the bees. They looked 

 so innocent as to make me itch to catch them 

 in my hands. Doubtless I should have itched 

 worse if I had done so. But they were beauties. 



Here I leave this epistle till I see what is 

 the result of to-night's raid. Said results may 

 be too late for this week's post. 



so that Mr. McGavran may take them to you. 

 He sails from Bombay Saturday. 



I spent from 9 : 30 last night till 4 : 30 a. m. 

 in the tree. It is the hardest job of climbing 

 I ever tried. I could get no climbers, as it is 

 impossible, almost, to get any thing made 

 here, and our tools are not yet here ; so I had 

 to engineer my way up with ropes and make- 

 shifts. Once up, I had to drag up poles and 

 build a platform on the branch the bees were 

 under, and another ; then I could just get to 

 the nest with outstretched arms. Perhaps 

 worst of all I had to guess at what was best 

 to do, as I had never handled Apis dorsata, 

 and had no instructions. So I let in on them 

 with mixed wood and tobacco smoke from 



rmr*n 



'ObpOSP' 



mm 



A %°A*AA1f VSmV V 



•AV V AVA«W *«*• AT 



A GOOD SPECIMEN OF FOUE BROOD; PHOTOGRAPHED BY THOS. \VM. COWAN. 



EDITORIALS. 



SEE 



April /j. — I will try to get you a word in 

 time for this post. I found at last that my 

 cyanide for killing specimens was all gone. I 

 caught a number in a bottle, borrowed the 

 hospital assistant's keys (the doctor is away 

 from the station) to get some alcohol I knew 

 of, and can not find that. That was at 5 a. 

 m. Since that I have sent for the hospital 

 assistant twice, and he was gone both times 

 (the second time just now), and in the mean 

 lime he has been after me, and found me 

 asleep, and did not waken me. I am anxious 

 to get specimens in alcohol by today's train, 



above, thinking that they might, having no 

 retreat, just sit still and let me stupefy them 

 and sweep them into my sheet. Naturally I 

 suppose I smoked the strongest from my way; 

 and as they retreated, instead of standing fire, 

 they crawled away from me and stopped out 

 of my reach on the branch, leaving the comb 

 bare. I think I got about half of them, and 

 fear the queen was in the other lot, but do not 

 know. I did not succeed in seeing her. Hav- 

 ing let down the bees I had caught, I drew 

 up another sheet and held it by the corners 

 and cut the comb off into it. It was thirty 



