200 APID.« — BEES. 



as they sailed along shore, the Bees constantly flew from the 

 vessel to the land, to collect honey, and returned again to 

 their moving hive; and this was continued all the way up 

 the Channel.''' 



In Lower Egypt, observes M. Maillet in his Description 

 of Kgypt, where the blossoming of flowers is about six weeks 

 latcr^han in the upper districts, the practice of transporting 

 Beehives is much followed. The hives are collected from dif- 

 ferent villages along the banks, each being marked and num- 

 bered by individual proprietors, to prevent future mistakes. 

 They are then arranged in pyramidal piles upon the boats 

 prepared to receive them, which, floating gradually down the 

 river, and stopping at certain stages of their passage, re- 

 main there a longer or a shorter time, according to the pro- 

 duce afforded by the surrounding country within two or 

 three leagues. In this manner the Bee-boats sail for three 

 months; the Bees, having culled the honey of the orange- 

 flowers in the Said, and of the Arabian jasmine and other 

 flowers in the more northern parts, are brought back to the 

 places whence they had been carried. This procures for 

 the Egyptians delicious honey and abundance of wax. The 

 proprietors in return pay the boatmen a recompense propor- 

 tioned to the number of hives which have been thus carried 

 about from one extremity of Egypt to the other.^ The 

 celebrated traveler Niebuhr saw upon the Nile, between 

 Cairo and Damietta, a convoy of 4000 hives in their transit 

 from Upper Egypt to the coast of the Delta.^ 



In the Bienenzeitung for 1854, p. 83, appears the follow- 

 ing statements : " Mr. Kaden, of Mayence, thinks that the 

 range of the Bee's flight does not usually extend more than 

 three miles in all directions. Several years ago, a vessel, 

 laden with sugar, anchored off Mayence, and was soon 

 visited by the Bees of the neighborhood, which continued to 

 pass to and from the vessel from dawn to dark. One morn- 

 ing, when the Bees were in full flight, the vessel sailed up 

 the river. For a short time, the Bees continued to fly as 

 numerously as before ; but gradually the number diminished, 

 and, in course of half an hour, all had ceased to follow the 

 vessel, which had, meanwhile, sailed more than four miles."* 



1 Mag. of Nat. Hist , iii 652. 



'i Wood's Zoog., ii. 429. 



3 Ins. Misc., p. 263. 



* Quot. by Langstroth — On IIoney-Bce, p. 305, note. 



