MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS. ^49
this ftrong union or fattening; ; this "fubftance being juit fpread upon the hive like a cruft, and confe- quently faftened to it by a very fmall portion of its furface ; where- as the reft of the wax hung per- pendicularly from this founda- tion, without any lateral or other fapport whatfoever, as if a wooden bowl were ^»xed to a plain ceiling by a fmall part of its circumfe- rence.
This hive contained the rudi- ments of a great m.iny more fcch combs of wax, of an oval form, and full of cells on each fide ; the empty fpaces lefc between the combs, for the bees to pafs and repafs, did not exceed half an inch in breadth ; fo.that it is plain the comb I foundopen upontheground, and in which I reckoned 418 c<^lls, had been torn from its foundation by its own weight, and that of the bees walking upon it. Her.ce it appears wit.h what good reafon thofe who keep bees, place Iticks crofs ways in their hives, that the combs may have the more i\ip- port : and accordingly v/e obfe: ve that in thefe hives, the bees them- felves on each fide fufpend their combs to thefe (licks.
Confiderinff the ^reat multitude of bees employed in building the waxen cells, which I have been jull examining, there is no great reafon to be farprifed at their having done fo much work that way, though the time they had to do it in was fo iTiorr, and the weather fo unfavourable. But it is really more aftonifting to think how a fingle female could lay fo many eggs in the fame fmall inter- val, and withal depofit every egg in a feparate cell, and there firm- ly faden it. We mult alfo allow
feme time for laying the perpen- dicular foundations. It is, more- over, very furprifing how thefe eggs fiiould fo fpeedily turn to worms, and how thofe worms (hould grow fo very foddenly to their ftate of chr.r.ge. But J mud now con- clude, and I fliall do it with the following account of what the hive
I have been defcribing contain- „ 1
Cvi.
33 males. I female. 563; working bees, 3392 wax cells, for the ufe of the working bees.
45 eggs- I ^o worms.
62 cells containing bees bread. 236 cells in which honey had been laid up.
j^n account of an extraordinary Jhov:er of black duft , thdt fell in the ifland of Zetland, Qci, 20, 1755. Being the extraSl of a letter from Sir Andi-e-ua . Mitchell, cf IVeOJhore, Bart, to John P> ingle, M.D. F. R. S.
N compliance with your de.Gre,
I made particular enquiry,
whether at or about the time the earthquake happened at Lifbon, Nov. I, 1755, ^^y unconimon phenomena were obferved to ap- pear in the iflands of Orkney or Zetland, as fuch had happened about that time in other parts cf Scotland, From Orkney I was informrd, that nothing particular had liappened, only, that about the time mentioned, the tides were obferved to be much higher thaa ordinary. I received from Zetland a letter, dated May zS, 1756, from
Mr.
