IN THE PRAIRIES. 



A BEE HUNT. 



281 



The beautiful forest in which we were encamped abounded in 

 bee-trees : that is to say, trees, in the decayed trunks of which wild 

 bees had established their hives. It is surprising in what countless 

 swarms the bees have overspread the far West, within but a moderate 

 number of years. The Indians consider them the harbinger of the 

 white man, as the buffalo is of the red man ; and say, that in pro- 

 portion as the bee advances, the Indian and the buffalo retire. We 

 are always accustomed to associate the bee-hive with the farm- 

 house and the flower-garden, and to consider these industrious little 

 animals as connected with the busy haunts of men ; and I am told 

 that the wild bee is seldom to be met with at any great distance 

 from the frontier. They have been the heralds of civilization, 

 stedfastly preceding it, as it advanced from the Atlantic borders ; 

 and some of the settlers of the West pretend to give the very year 

 when the honey-bee first crossed the Mississippi. The Indians, 

 with surprise, suddenly found the mouldering trees of their forests 

 teeming with ambrosial sweets ; and nothing, I am told, can exceed 

 the greedy relish with which they banquet, for the first time, on this 

 unbought luxury of the wilderness. 



At present the honey-bee swarms in myriads in the noble groves 

 and forests that skirt and intersect the prairies, and extend along the 

 alluvial bottoms of the rivers. It seems to me as if these beautiful 

 regions answer literally to the description of the land of promise, 

 " a land flowing with milk and honey;" for the rich pasturage of 

 the prairies is calculated to sustain herds of cattle as countless as the 

 sands upon the sea-shore, while the flowers with which they are 

 enamelled render them a very paradise for the nectar-seeking bee. 



We had not been long in the camp, when a party set out in quest 

 of a bee-tree ; and being curious to witness the sport, I gladly 

 accepted an invitation to accompany them. The party was headed 

 by a veteran bee-hunter, a tall lank fellow, in home-spun garb, -that 

 hung loosely about his limbs, and a straw-hat, shaped not unlike a 

 bee-hive ; a comrade, equally uncouth in his garb, and without 

 a hat, straddled along at his heels, with a long rifle on his shoulder. 

 To these succeeded half a dozen others, some with axes and some 

 with rifles ; for no one stirs far from the camp without fire-arms, so 

 as to be ready either for wild deer or wild Indian. 



After proceeding some distance, we came to an open glade, on the 



skirts of the forest. Here our leader halted, and then advanced 



quietly to a low bush, on the top of which I perceived a piece of 



honey-comb. This, I found, was the bait or lure for the wild bees. 



NO. III. VOL. III. O O 



