he Nile, and convey them up that river
quite into Upper Egypt; observing to time it so that they arrive there
just when the inundation is withdrawn, the lands have been sown, and the
flowers begin to bud. The hives thus sent are marked and numbered by
their respective owners, and placed pyramidically in boats prepared for
the purpose. After they have remained some time at their furthest
station, and are supposed to have gathered all the pollen and honey they
could find in the fields within two or three leagues around, their
conductors convey them in the same boats, two or three leagues lower
down, and there leave the laborious insects so long a time as is
necessary for them to collect all the riches of this spot. Thus the
nearer they come to the place of their more permanent abode, they find
the plants which afford them food, forward in proportion.

In fine, about the beginning of February, after having travelled through
the whole length of Egypt, and gathered all the rich produce of the
delightful banks of the Nile, they arrive at the mouth of that river,
towards the ocean; from whence they had set out: care is taken to keep
an exact register of every district from whence the hives were sent
in the beginning of the season, of their numbers, of the names of the
persons who sent them, and likewise of the mark or number of the boat
in which they were placed.

Niebuhr saw upon the Nile, between Cairo and Damietta, a convoy of
four thousand hives, in their transit from Upper Egypt to the Delta.
Savary, in his letters on Egypt, also gives an account of the manner of
transporting the hives down the Nile. In France floating bee-houses are
common. Goldsmith describes from his own observation, a kind of floating
apiary in some parts of France and Piedmont. "They have on board of one
barge," he says, "three score or a hundred bee-hives, well defended
from the inclemency of an accidental storm, and with these the owners
float quietly down the stream: one bee-hive yields the proprietor a
considerable income. Why," he adds, "a method similar to this has never
been adopted in England where we have more gentle rivers, and more
flowery banks, than in any part of the world, I know not; certainly it
might be turned to advantage."

They have also a method of transporting their hives by land in carts in
Germany; and particularly in Hanover travelling caravans of bees may be
seen during the season.

I have thus briefly quoted from famou