The Life of the Bee 
anterior legs, those that follow hang on to 
the first, and so in succession, until long 
chains have been formed that serve as a 
bridge to the crowd that rises and rises. 
And, by slow degrees, these chains, as 
their number increases, supporting each 
other and incessantly interweaving, be- 
come garlands which, in their turn, the 
uninterrupted and constant ascension 
transforms into a thick, triangular curtain, 
or rather a kind of compact and inverted 
cone, whose apex attains the summit of 
the cupola, while its widening base de- 
scends to a half, or two-thirds, of the 
entire height of the hive. And then, the 
last bee that an inward voice has impelled 
to form part of this group having added 
itself to the curtain suspended in darkness, 
the ascension ceases ; all movement slowly 
dies away in the dome; and, for long 
hours, this strange inverted cone will wait, 
in a silence that almost seems awful, in a 
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