506 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 1. 



degrees. I am inclined to cross bridges before 

 I get to them, and to imagine all sorts of evils. 

 I finally walked boldly to the purser's cabin 

 and presented the case to him, and he proved 

 to be both a gentleman and a friend, and 

 promptly gave the lady another room. But I 

 felt all the same that I had escaped a great 

 embarrassment. 



From eight o'clock until two that day our 

 steamer cleft the waters of Puget Sound. Our 

 journey was still to the north ; and the day 

 being bright we had a fair view of this vast 

 body of water, which, with its many indenta- 

 tions and islands, is more worthy to be called 

 an inland sea. We touched at a few ports, 

 and finally tied up to the wharf at Victoria, 

 British Columbia. We had several hours here, 

 and nearly all of the passengers improved the 

 opportunity to see the town. The chief no- 

 ticeable features were the fine government 

 buildiugs and the numerous Chinamen. I 

 should think fully a third of the 25,000 popu- 

 lation of the town were of that race. 



At Victoria I met my cabin mate, and he 

 was a young man just from the Klondike 

 country. He was returning much poorer 

 than when he went north, and he felt quite 

 elated to think that he had gotten back with 

 the breath of life in his body. 



dred pounds, and it readily sold for beeswax, 

 and it certainly was beeswax, and the mine 

 was soon exhausted. No one knows how the 

 wax was deposited there, but it is supposed 

 that a vessel with a large amount of wax on 

 board was wrecked there. A beeswax mine 

 would indeed be a bonanza to the finder. 



After arrival in San Francisco I found my 

 way across the bay to Oakland, and paid my 

 compliments to Mr. W. A. Pryal, and found 

 him up to his ears in real-estate and insurance 

 business ; but still he finds a little time for 

 recreation in his apiary of about 40 colonies, 

 in which he is still interested. I think it is a 

 fact that no one who has ever managed bees, 

 and having a love for the bees aside from the 

 dollars-and-cents point, ever wholly gives up 

 the pursuit. Mr. Pryal a few years ago turn- 

 ed his attention to queen-rearing, and has an 

 idea of working his bees in that direction 

 again. We have no queen-breeders in Cali- 

 fornia, and the State should boast of at least 

 one. 



Mr. Pryal and I visited San Francisco, and 

 we proceeded to hunt up Harry Jones, the 

 gas-man ; but we found that our genial friend 

 had at last, after several years' vowing and 

 threatening, left the hard pavements and the 

 brick avenues, the rattle and tear of the city, 



After our good ship had passed out upon 

 the broad ocean that night, the storm again 

 commenced ; and for two days our ship was 

 pelted with rain, and buffeted with the winds 

 and waves ; and, though three-quarters of the 

 passengers were seasick, I escaped the dis- 

 agreeable experience. 



You would scarcely think there would be 

 any thing to interest bee-keepers off the coast 

 of Oregon, but there is. I saw some time ago 

 an account of a wax-mine off this coast ; and 

 while in Oregon I made inquiries in relation 

 thereto, and found it to be a fact. Parties 

 who found the wax out a little distance from 

 the shore supposed they had struck a vein of 

 some kind of mineral wax that closely resem- 

 bled beeswax. They fished up several hun- 



and had becorne a bo7ia-fide bee-rancher near 

 Santa Rosa. As it was only a little matter of 

 about sixty miles, Mr. Pryal and I thought we 

 would take a little turn out there and see him; 

 but the morning we appointed to make the 

 start came in with a gentle rain, and the jour- 

 ney was postponed indefinitely. Our friend 

 will probably appreciate the miss we made. 



I felt as though it would not do to pass 

 through the city without shaking the hand of 

 that staunch friend of the bee-keeping frater- 

 nity, Mr. Thos. G. Newman, and Mr. Pryal 

 chaperoned me a long walk up Market Street, 

 to his place of business. 



Mr. Newman gave us a cordial greeting, 

 but we were pained to find him in delicate 

 health. When Mr. Newman first came to 



