A BEE-TREE. 263 



the surrounding dark tree-stems. About two o'clock 

 I proposed a halt. The old man was not loth to 

 accede, for although the distance traversed was far 

 from equal to our usual day's march, still it had been 

 most fatiguing. While we were making the neces- 

 sary arrangements the sun shone out for the first 

 time that day, as if in approval of our conduct, and 

 soon after our blankets were stretched before his 

 friendly rays, to divest them of some of the wet with 

 which they were saturated. 



While cleaning my gun, which had suffered sadly 

 from the wet, my companion went off, evidently 

 with the intention of looking for game. After an 

 absence of more than an hour, he returned with the 

 information that he had discovered a bee -tree. 

 Neither of us being possessed of an axe, I could not 

 see how we were to be benefited by what he con- 

 sidered a great piece of luck. However, at his 

 request I accompanied him to the tree. In an 

 opening, that looked as if it had once been cleared 

 by man, stood an unusually large girdling, perfectly 

 denuded of branches, while the upper portion leaned 

 almost at an angle of forty-five degrees towards the 

 south. Near the top he pointed out an orifice, 

 which he stated was the entrance to the hive. In 

 answer to my inquiry as to how he intended getting 

 at it, he informed me that by sounding he had dis- 

 covered that the tree was hollow, and if we chose 

 it could soon be burnt down. Not having a parti- 

 cularly sweet tooth, I vetoed the trouble. Though 



