LETTERS FROM ALABAMA, 
181 
seizure of the honey more easy. But the hees did 
not seem to manifest that decided preference for 
the new lodging over the old one that the negroes 
desired; so they, becoming impatient, proceeded 
to split off the longitudinal chip or section of the 
trunk, contained between the first two cuts, sup- 
posing that by so doing they should expose the 
mass of comb to view. As they peeped in, how- 
ever, by lifting up one edge, before the piece was 
quite detached, and perceived that the comb was 
not there, they did not split it off, but tried the 
upper chip : here, at last, they exposed the long 
oval combs lying one over another as the fallen 
tree now lay, but side by side, and parallel to the 
sides of the trunk when it was erect. 
The men now began to cut out the comb with 
their knives, disregarding the bees, which crawled 
about, manifesting little disposition to sting, seem- 
ing more in sorrow than in anger but probably 
in reality stupefied and disabled by the effects of 
the smoke. We all feasted on the honeycomb, 
which was full to overflowing of rich, clear honey, 
nearly as transparent and colourless as water, indi- 
cating that the swarm was young. A good deal of 
the comb was either dry and empty, or contained 
the young bees in different stages of their growth ; 
some being in larva and pupa, others perfected, but 
with their members yet soft and white. 
The men now removed the ^^gum” from the 
original entrance, and placed it over this main 
opening, blowing in smoke at both extremities, but, 
as they had taken out most of the comb, I did not 
remain to watch the result ; a great many of the 
bees were flying off when I left. They had, pre- 
viously to commencing operations, rubbed the 
