The Young Queens 
seek new bearings and create fresh land- 
marks. 
[ 67 ] 
And now let us return to the city that 
is being repeopled, where myriad cradles 
are incessantly opening, and the solid walls 
even appear to be moving. But this city 
still lacks a queen. Seven or eight curi- 
ous structures arise from the centre of one 
of the combs, and remind us, scattered as 
they are over the surface of the ordinary 
cells, of the circles and protuberances that 
appear so strange on the photographs of 
the moon. They are a species of capsule, 
contrived of wrinkled wax or of inclined 
glands, hermetically sealed, which fills the 
place of three or four workers’ cells. As 
a rule, they are grouped around the same 
point ; and a numerous guard keep watch, 
with singular vigilance and restlessness, 
over this region that seems instinct with 
243 
