608 Insects. 



vent the bees from coming out, which they had already begun to do. 

 While he was doing this, the other was gathering broad leaves from 

 the shrubs around, and rolling them up tightly to form a ball, which 

 he then thrust into the orifice to stop it up. The bees being thus im- 

 prisoned, the next proceeding was to find out the situation of the 

 comb, by cutting into the tree. They first cut a deep notch on the 

 side opposite the entrance, about two feet higher up the trunk, the 

 nest being entered from below. As soon as the axe began to pene- 

 trate the hollow of the tree, as the bees began to hum and cluster to 

 the new opening, the men knew that they had not reached the top of 

 the nest ; so, having held the smoking cotton there until it could be 

 closed by another stopper of leaves, they tried about two feet higher; 

 here, however, the bees were as thick as before ; so, having stopped 

 this, they cut another notch higher still, and at length found that they 

 had reached a point above the summit of the nest. One of the ne- 

 groes now strongly blew the smoke into this orifice, while the other, 

 having fixed the " gum " by props over the original hole, drew out the 

 stopper of leaves, that the bees, driven out by the smoke blown in at 

 the upper end, might take shelter in the new hive, and render the 

 seizure of the honey more easy. The bees, however, did not seem to 

 manifest that decided preference for the new lodging over the old that 

 the negroes wished ; so they, being impatient, proceeded to split off 

 the chip betwen the first two notches; but as they could lift one edge 

 sufficiently to peep in, before it was quite separated, and as they saw 

 that the comb was not there, they did not split it off, but tried the 

 upper chip. Here, at length, they exposed the combs, of a long oval 

 form, lying one on another as the tree now lay prostrate, but side by 

 side, parallel with the sides of the trunk, when it was erect. The 

 men now commenced cutting out the comb with their knives, disre- 

 garding the bees, which crawled about, manifesting little disposition 

 to sting, seemingly "more in sorrow than in anger;" but probably 

 stupified and disabled by the effect of the smoke. 



We began to feast on the honey, part of the comb being full to 

 overflowing of rich clear honey, nearly as transparent as water, indi- 

 cating that the swarm was young. A good deal of the comb was 

 empty, or contained the bees in different stages of their growth, some 

 in larva and pupa, others perfected, but soft and white. The negroes 

 now fixed the gum over this main opening, and blew in the cotton- 

 smoke at the original hole at the lower end ; but as they had taken 

 out most of the comb, 1 did not stay to see the result. A great many 

 of the bees were flying off. The gum had previously been rubbed on 



