The Life of the Bee 
divine the exact point where the brood-cells 
shall concentrate, under penalty of disaster 
should these be too high or too low, too 
near to or far from the door. The swarm, it 
may be, has just left the trunk of a fallen 
tree, containing one long, narrow, depressed, 
horizontal gallery; and it finds itself now 
in a tower-shaped edifice, whose roof is lost 
in gloom. Or to take a case that is more 
usual, perhaps, and one that will give some 
idea of the surprise habitually in store for 
the bees: after having lived, for centuries 
past, beneath the straw dome of our village 
hives, they are suddenly transplanted to a 
species of mighty cupboard, or chest, three 
or four times as large as the place of their 
birth; and installed in the midst of a con- 
fused scaffolding of superposed frames, some 
running parallel to the entrance and some 
perpendicular ; the whole forming a bewilder- 
ing network that obscures the surfaces of 
their dwelling. 
42 
And yet, for all this, there exists not a 
single instance of a swarm refusing its 
116 
