156 TREATISE ON THE 
and light to a state of utter darkness. ‘The 
object in burying Bees in the earth is that 
they may pass the winter with little or no 
food, and it is stated that very small, feeble 
swarms thus treated, or when confined in 
dark cellars, are preserved, when in any 
other situation they must have perished of 
hunger. The method practised in burying 
Bees is to choose a spot of dry ground where 
there is no probability of water reaching the 
hive. Dig the hole considerably larger than 
the hive, and about eighteen inches deeper 
than the height of it, fill the vacancy round 
the hive with straw, cover it over so deep 
that no frost can reach it. They are buryed 
in November and liberated in April, when if 
they appear destitute of honey it will be ne- 
cessary to feed them. That Bees should 
survive under such circumstances, seems to 
be among the inscrutible phenomena in nat- 
ural history. ‘Though I do not hesitate to 
advance the opinion that their preservation 
is to be ascribed more to a uniform degree of 
warmth, than to any other cause ; but with 
