BEEHIVE IN BELFAST. 129 



prior to their entrance, and which thus corresponded 

 to " the suburb of their straw-built citadel," in the 

 ordinary hive. As far as the eye could reach, nothing 

 but the roofs of small houses could be seen, except 

 where the vision was bounded and closed in by the 

 walls of other edifices of a more lofty structure. It 

 seemed wonderful how, amid such a multitude of 

 houses, the bees could find their way back to the one 

 from which they issued. The theory propounded by 

 Rogers, in his " Pleasures of Memor}^" that it is by 

 retracing 



"The varied scents which charm'd them as they flew," 



would certainly be insufiicient to explain the pheno- 

 menon. There was nothing wavering or uncertain 

 in their homeward flight. In fact, from the moment 

 they appeared in view, their course was in a direct 

 line to their elevated abode, and so straight and rapid, 

 that they resembled bodies projected bj^ some power- 

 ful machine. 



The gardens, meadows, and hedge-rows about 

 town, no doubt, supply to these bees the materials for 

 the prosecution of " their delicious task." 



" Through the soft air the busy nations fly. 

 Cling to the bud, and with inserted tube 

 Suck its pure essence, its ethereal soul." 



Thomson'* lS/)rinp. 



