24 
MANAGEMENT OF BEES. 
least, an increase of produce in relation to the number and size of 
the individuals of each community. It is also clear that the situa¬ 
tion of the hive keeps many of the natural enemies of the bees at a 
distance. The bee of Cashmere is a little smaller than that of Eu¬ 
rope, though a little larger than the domesticated bee of Kumaoon, 
and of Gurwhal. 
The Bhoura, the rock bee of Gurwhal, or the bee of the southern 
mountains, is, on the other hand, greatly larger than the domesti¬ 
cated bee of Europe, and greatly exceeds it also in the number of 
individuals in each community, and in the size and weight of its 
combs. But its honey is sometimes contaminated by an intoxicating 
quality, and the temper of the insect is so irritable as to be brought 
into a dangerous state of activity by a slight show of aggression. 
The former quality is suspected, upon probable grounds, to be caused 
by the secretion of the aconite eaten by this bee, and its irratibility 
of disposition to be owing partly to the exposed situation of the 
combs suspended from the lower surface of a ledge of rock, and partly 
to the occasional attempts of hears to carry them off. Both these 
detractions from the merit of this bee are merely the result of locali¬ 
ties; and under due precautions it is presumed that its irascibility 
might he so far subdued as to render it just as safe an inhabitant of 
a wall hive, as the smaller variety of bee. In a portion of the Panjah, 
near the hills, this bee is also met with; and I have seen the under 
surface of the principal branches of a large Peepul tree studded with 
so many colonies, individually of such great strength, as to deter the 
neighbouring peasantry from attempting^. to deprive them of their 
stores, notwithstanding it was conjectured that there were several 
hundred weight of combs on the tree. The largest of these assem¬ 
blages of combs, the probable accumulation of several seasons, was of 
such a size as I think it not prudent to cite; but from the specimens 
I have seen of the produce of this bee, I conceive their domestication, 
if introduced into Europe, would prove a most valuable acquisition 
to this branch of farming, although I must confess myself unable to 
devise any safe and easy plan for transporting such a colony. 
