2i6 THE LORE OF THE HONEY-BEE 



to back. How are these distances preserved, see- 

 ing that the bees at work on the bottom edge of 

 each comb are separated by a space of, perhaps, 

 an inch and a half of empty darkness ? 



A simple experiment will at once give a clue to 

 this. If a hive, in which a swarm has constructed 

 about half its depth of comb, be canted a little 

 sideways, so as to throw the combs out of the per- 

 pendicular, and the hive be then left for several 

 days, it will be found on examination that all 

 building, from the moment of disturbance, has 

 followed on the new line of verticality. The combs 

 will all be slightly bent to one side. This means 

 either that the bees have a natural sense of the 

 perpendicular, or that they work by the plumb- 

 line, as humanity is constrained to do. The fact 

 seems to be that the hanging cluster of wax- 

 making bees performs the office of a living 

 plummet, and really guides the comb in its down- 

 ward progress. 



Yet, do bees always suspend their combs ? Do 

 they never construct a waxen storehouse, raising 

 it tier above tier from the floor of the hive, after 

 the system of the more intelligent creature, Man ? 



The first commentary on this is, that such a 

 departure from their common methods would be 

 no improvement, but a retrograde step. These 

 long comb-walls of the bees have a close analogy 

 to the modern transatlantic sky-scraper building. 

 The trouble with all such buildings is to provide 



