THE BEE-HUNTER. i8; 



home; and so well is this characteristic known by the 

 American hunters, that it is a common saying with them, 

 when starting in a hurry, to say, " Well, I shall make a 

 bae-line for home," or for any other place which they wish 

 to reach at once. A bee-hunter then, having found the 

 line of liis bee, has only half performed his task ; for the 

 home of the bee may be a mile or two deep in the forest; 

 but by taking a different position and a fresh bee, and 

 marking where the point of intersection would be of the 

 two flights, he can judge pretty well how deep in the forest 

 the hi\'e will be, as the two bees, if belonging to the same tree, 

 will converge from their opposite starting points to the tiny 

 hole by which they enter their home in the arm of some 

 great forest tree. Practice enables the hunter to determine 

 this in half the time it takes to explain it, even as lamely 

 as I have done, and gathering up his various implements 

 he starts in pursuit. Arrived in the neighbourhood of the 

 tree, the reason why the sulphur was used is apparent ; the 

 dusted bees had disturbed all the other inmates of their 

 little community by the disagreeable taint they had brought 

 with them; and now the buzzing, humming noise of the 

 colony directs Tony to his prey. 



The tree at whose foot we had arrived was one of the 

 finest in the forest. For two centuries at least it had 

 stretched its giant limbs towards the heavens, and its green 

 leaves had fluttered in the summer breeze long before its 

 destroyer's grandfather was born ; " but the axe was laid 

 to the root of the tree," and, whilst Tony Sneed plied his 

 strokes thick and fast on one side, his son's blows sounded 

 quick and sharp on the other. Until the tree began to 

 totter, the bees had not seemed aware that any danger 

 threatened their home, but as soon as they understood the 

 nature of the invasion they sallied out to attack the in- 

 vaders ; and, though they inflicted many a sting, Sneed and 

 his son were equal to the occasion. Ceasing from their 



