OPINION OF CHAMBERS AND HUNTER. 423 



land, to collect its honey from the flowers of a shrub which 

 at no time emit any exquisite odour, and which must neces- 

 sarily be neutralized, if not wholly destroyed, by the saline 

 exhalations of the ocean. 



It was the opinion of Dr. Chambers, that the bee cannot 

 extend its flight much beyond a mile *, and Dr. Hunter was 

 of the same opinion : we are, however, inclined to believe 

 that both Chambers and Hunter adopted their opinion on 

 the authority of Schirach, who affirms that the bees cannot 

 extend their flight beyond one mile j but then it should be 

 taken into consideration, that the German mile of Schirach is 

 equal to about three and a half miles English, and from that 

 very circumstance may be traced all the errors which the 

 numerous commentators, both French and English, on the 

 works of the German apiarians, have fallen into in calculat- 

 ing the extent of the flight of a bee. The travelling apiaries 

 of Germany, particularly those of Hanover, are regulated by 

 the prevailing opinion, that the bee can and does extend its 

 flight to four and even five miles ; and acting upon that 

 supposition, when the bee-masters move their apiaries, they 

 always travel about two stunden, that is, about eight miles, as 

 they then calculate that the bees are beyond the former range 

 of their pasture by four miles. A travelling apiary of eighty 

 or one hundred hives will exhaust the food within the area 

 of a circle of four miles in about a fortnight or three weeks ; 

 it is, however, a remarkable circumstance, that the honey 

 collected solely from heath, without the admixture of the 

 produce of any other flowers, is of an unpleasant flavour, 

 and of a dark, muddy colour; in fact, in commerce, the 

 worst kind of honey is known by the name of heath honey, 

 and the most adulterated that is brought to market, for 



* In a work lately published by Mr. A. Martin, of Corbeille, in France, he 

 limits the night of the bee to three or four kilometres, that is, about half or 

 three quarters of a mile. This is one of the points in which we are decidedly 

 at variance with Mr. Martin, for were the flight of the bee to be confined 

 within such narrow limits, no apiary ought to consist of more than five hives. 

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