194 
MANAGEMENT IN SPRING. 
ature of the atmosphere) and the temperament of the 
body which is stung ; and lie tells us farther, that 
the bees are more peaceably disposed in temperate 
climates, than in those where the heat is extreme.* 
For this he gives the authority of the Abbe della 
Rocca, who asserts that these insects are not so irrit- 
able in the comparatively moderate climate of France, 
as they are in the Grecian Islands where he had re- 
sided ; and in proof of this he gives one or two an- 
ecdotes which are worthy of being recorded. A 
small privateer with 40 or 50 men, having on board 
some hives made of earthen-ware full of bees, was 
pursued by a Turkish galley manned by 500 seamen 
and soldiers. As soon as the latter came alongside, 
the crew of the privateer mounted the rigging with 
their hives, and hurled them down upon the deck of 
the galley. The Turks, astonished at this novel 
mode of warfare, and unable to defend themselves 
from the stings of the enraged bees, became so terri- 
fied, that they thought of nothing but how to escape 
their fury ; while the crew of the small vessel, de- 
fended by masks and gloves, flew upon their enemies 
sword in hand, and captured the vessel almost with- 
out resistance. The Abbe’s next anecdote is nearly 
as extraordinary. When Amurath, the Turkish 
emperor, during the siege of Alba Grseca, had bat- 
tered down part of the wall, and was about to take 
the town by assault, he found the breach defended 
* This is an error, if we may believe the accounts which 
travellers within the tropics have given of the bees in those 
regions. 
