370 The Honey-Makers 



enables them to export a considerable quantity to foreign 

 countries." 



Niebuhr reports having once seen a flotilla of four thou- 

 sand hives on the Nile between Cairo and Damietta^ mak- 

 ing their way from Upper Egypt to the Delta. 



Throughout Africa honey-bees are common. " On the 

 West coast of the river Gambia," we are told, " the natives 

 formerly paid much attention to bees. They had hives 

 made of reeds and sedges, shaped like baskets and hung 

 on the outer boughs of trees." In some places they were 

 hung so thickly that at a short distance they looked like 

 large fruit on the branches. 



Mr, Cummings in his " Adventures in South Africa " tells 

 us that the wild bees there are the same as the domestic 

 bees of England. But this is doubtless because the 

 European bee has been extensively introduced. 



Beeswax forms a considerable part of the cargoes of 

 ships trading to the Gold and Ivory coasts and districts of 

 Sierra Leone, and the western shores of Africa. 



The European honey-bee was introduced by the Dutch 

 settlers into southern Africa, where it quickly made itself 

 at home, escaping to the woods and colonizing large areas, 

 while in his " Origin of Species " Darwin says : — 



" In Australia the imported hive-bee is rapidly extermi- 

 nating the small, stingless native bee." 



In New Zealand, the West Indies and the United States 

 it has also become a permanent and flourishing resident. 



In South America, in Cayenne and Surinam, there are 

 reported little black bees with white wings. '' They build 

 their nest in the shape of a bagpipe, upon the tops of the 

 highest trees. The honey is very sweet and agreeable, 

 thin, and of a reddish color. From the latter the Indians 

 extract a spirituous liquor of which they are passionately 

 fond ; of the wax they make candles. " 



