THE PASTORAL DEES. 83 



thus assert their independence forms quite a large 

 per cent. In the Northern States these swarms very 

 often perish before spring ; but in such a country as 

 Florida they seem to multiply, till bee-trees are vert 

 common. In the West, also, wild honey is <>: 

 gathered in large quantities. I noticed not long 

 since, that some wood - choppers on the west Blope 

 of the Coast Range felled a tree that had several pail- 

 fuls in it. 



One night on the Potomac a party of us unwit- 

 tingly made our camp near the foot of a bee-tree, 

 which next day the winds of heaven blew down, for 

 our special delectation, at least so we read the sign. 

 Another time while sitting by a waterfall in the leaf. 

 less April woods I discovered a swarm in the top of 

 a large hickory. I had the season before remarked 

 the tree as a likely place for bees, but the screen of 

 leaves concealed them from me. This time my former 

 presentiment occurred to me, and, looking sharply, 

 sure enough there were the bees, going out and in a 

 large, irregular opening. In June a violent tempest 

 of wind and rain demolished the tree, and the honey 

 was all lost in the creek into which it fell. I hap- 

 pened along that way two or three days after the 

 tornado, when I saw a remnant of the swarm, those, 

 doubtless, that escaped the flood and those that were 

 away when the disaster came, hanging in a small 

 black mass to a branch high up near where th ir 

 home used to be. They looked forlorn enough. If 

 the queen was saved the remnant probably sought 

 another tree ; otherwise the bees have soon died. 



I have seen bees desert their hive in the Bpring 

 when it was infested with worms, or when the honey 

 was exhausted ; at such times the swarm seems to 



