NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. ] 59 



of this continent." William Bartranis Travels through the Carulinas and Floridas, 

 in 1773. 



In Lewis and Clarke's expedition up the Missouri, (vol. 1.) it is stated, " We observed 

 at the entrance of Maria's river, which is forfy-seven degrees, twenty-five minutes, and 

 seventeen seconds north, that the bee martin, or king bird, is common to this country, 

 although there are no bees here, and, in fact, we have not met with the honey bee since 

 leaving the Osage river." The junction of the Osage and Missouri is in latitude thirty- 

 eight degrees, thirty-one minutes, sixteen seconds ; and it is not likely that the honey bee 

 would, contrary to the law of its migration, extend itself into the inhospitable regions of 

 the north, unless invited by the cultivation of the country. This, therefore, proves 

 nothing. The opinion of Bartram is deserving of respect, and it certainly leans in favour 

 of what he considers the general sentiment, that the honey bee is an indigenous animal, 

 and I can bear testimony to the truth of his remark, that they are numerous in the wild 

 forests. In the most distant and extensive woods of the west, remote from all habitation 

 and cultivation, this useful insect is to be found. In a new settlement on the Ridge 

 Road, in Genessee county, a lonely and solitary place, I saw a bee-hive, composed of a 

 piece of button wood, which was cut out of the woods full of bees. Dr. Williams, in his 

 History of Vermont, (a work of great merit,) says, " From our earliest acquaintance 

 with Lake Champlain, the honey bee was to be found in the open lands along those shores, 

 at the distance of one hundred miles from the English or French settlements, and long 

 before those settlements had begun to attend to the cultivation of this animal ; and from 

 the first settlement of New England hunting for their nests has been a favourite and pro- 

 fitable amusement.'' Upon the whole, although the balance of authority is greatly against 

 the bee as an indigenous animal of North America, yet I am by no means satisfied that 

 the weight of reason is not in the other scale. 



Quaere? Would it not be well to import the stingless bee of Mexico, that makes the 

 aromatic honey of Estabentun, and also the bee of the Niger, whose produce is so supe- 

 rior, both in delicacy and taste, to the best honey of the south of France ? 



