MANAGEMENT OF BEES. 
23 
the combs, though apparently in a state of stupefaction, threw them 
out of the house. Observing many other bees hung motionless on 
the floor of the hive, I inquired whether they were dead or only stu- 
pified, and was answered that they would recover; preparations for 
continuing my journey at a very early hour on the following morn¬ 
ing, having unluckily prevented my examining the spot where they 
had been thrown, until poultry had for some time been feeding- 
near it. 
The expelled bees returned as soon as the cavity was freed from 
smoke, without stinging a single individual, and the whole business 
was completed within less than ten minutes, without, as was asserted, 
any jDerceptible loss. The honey was light coloured, and of a taste 
as pure and sweet as that of Narbonne. It possessed less of the 
cloying quality generally attending this substance, than any other I 
recollect to have met with, nor could I learn that the farmers had any 
suspicion of its ever being intoxicating or poisonous, as in the case 
occasionally with that made by the Bhoara (Apis irritabilis) or large 
wild bee in the northern mountains of Gurwhal, from feeding, as it 
is reported, on the flower of the monkshood. I was directed more 
particularly to inquire upon this subject by having observed this 
plant in flower in the valley of Bunga, a few miles to the eastward 
of the bee district, and think probable that it extends to these 
mountains. 
The peasantry of Cashmere are unacquainted with the employ¬ 
ment of honey as the basis of a fermented liquor, but eat it raw or 
mixed with articles of common food, whilst the most wealthy sub¬ 
stitute it for sugar in preserving fruits. It is customary to take the 
hive every year; about the end of September, or the beginning of 
October, is found the best season for this ojDeration; a little time still 
remaining for the bees to add to the portion left for their support du¬ 
ring five months. This amounts to about one-third of the whole 
produce, and would appear to suffice, as swarms seldom die, and the 
Cashmerees substitute no other article of food. It is stated that an 
old swarm yields more honey than a young one, and that families 
seldom die except of old age. I was informed that it was no com¬ 
mon circumstance to preserve the same community for ten or even 
fifteen years, and some instances were quoted of a family having been 
retained for twenty years ; but this was held to be a very rare occur¬ 
rence. In consequence of the bees being thus literally domesticated 
they acquire a mildness of conduct far more decided than those of 
Europe, and it is possible that the confidence thus gained, subduing 
their natural iracibility, may generate an increase of industry, or at 
