THE BUILDING OF THE CITY 37 



space properly with regulation cells, there is, 

 when one comes to examine them closely, a 

 considerable amount of irregularity both in the 

 shape and size of the cells. I have a beautiful 

 piece of natural comb before me as I write, and 

 in one row of cells, quite in the middle of the 

 comb and therefore not to be accounted for by 

 unusual conditions, there are no two cells exactly 

 alike, even to the eye. 



Then again, it has been said that the base of 

 one cell is always exactly at the point where the 

 three cells on the opposite side meet, whereas there 

 is a very considerable variation, the meeting-point 

 being sometimes quite close to the side of the cell. 

 One can only conclude that those who were 

 responsible for these observations had never 

 examined a comb — I speak now of a natural comb, 

 for of course, with comb built from artificial 

 foundation, where the cell bases are stamped out 

 by machinery, there is no room for divergence. 

 To my mind, the wonder is, seeing the irregular 

 way in which the bees commence cutting the pits, 

 that they approximate to accuracy so closely as 

 they do. 



As soon as the first comb is well started, another 

 is commenced exactly parallel to it, and at such 

 a distance that, when the cells are completed, there 

 will be just room for two bees to pass between 

 the combs. This is, to my mind, more remark- 

 able than any other feature of comb Iconstruc- 



