THE FOUNDATION OF THE CITY loi 



55 



The outline of the nascent comb may soon be divined. 

 In form it will still be lenticular, for the little prismatic tubes 

 that compose it are unequal in length, and diminish in pro- 

 portion as they recede from the centre to the extremities. 

 In thickness and appearance at present it more or less resembles 

 a human tongue whose two sides might be formed of hexa- 

 gonal cells, contiguous, and placed back to back. 



The first cells having been built, the foundresses proceed to 

 add a second block of wax to the roof,, and so in gradation a 

 third and a fourth. These blocks follow each other at regular 

 intervals, so nicely calculated that when, at a much later 

 period, the comb shall be fully developed, there will be ample 

 space for the bees to move between its parallel walls. 



Their plan must therefore embrace the final thickness of 

 every comb, which will be from eighty-eight to ninety-two 

 hundredths of an inch, and at the same time the width of 

 the avenues between, which must be about half an inch, or 

 in other words twice the height of a bee, since there must 

 be room to pass back to back between the combs. 



The bees, however, are not infallible, nor does their 

 certainty appear mechanical. They will commit grave errors 

 at times when circumstances present unusual difficulty. They 

 will often leave too much space, or too little, between the 

 combs. This they will remedy as best they can, either by 

 giving an oblique twist to the comb that too nearly approaches 

 the other, or by introducing an irregular comb into the gap. 

 " The bees will sometimes make mistakes," Reaumur remarks^ 



