evening, the time
soon came when they needed more cells in which to store their
provisions. Then most likely the famous engineers, the sculptors, and
the waxmakers, were summoned to show the way to fill up this useless
chasm.

A heavy curtain, or garland, of the wax-making bees covered the spot
so as to develop the necessary heat; others went down into the hole
and began the work of solidly fixing the metal in place by means of
little claws of wax around its entire circumference, attaching them to
the walls of the cells which surrounded it. Then they set to work to
make three or four cells in the upper part of the disc, attaching them
to these waxen claws. Each of these new cells was more or less
unfinished at the top, so as to leave material wherewith to fasten it
to the next cell, but below on the piece of tin was always three very
clear, and precise angles from which would grow the three upright
lines which regularly marked the outline of the first half of the next
cell. After about forty-eight hours, although three or four bees at
most could work at the same time in the opening, the whole surface of
the piece of tin was covered with the outlines of the new cells. They
were certainly somewhat less regular than those in an ordinary
comb.... But they were all perfectly hexagonal; not a line was bent,
not an angle out of shape; nevertheless all the ordinary conditions of
bee-life were changed. The cells were not dug out of a block of wax as
Huber described, nor were they made according to Darwin, circular at
first, and then made into hexagons by the pressure of their neighbors.
Here was no question of reciprocal obstacles, seeing that the cells
were made one by one, and these first outlines were sketched on a kind
of table. It would appear therefore that the hexagonal form is not the
result of any mechanical necessity, but that it forms the plan
resulting from the experience, the intelligence, and the will of the
bee. Another curious thing which I accidentally noticed was that the
cells built upon the tin were not provided with any other floor than
the tin itself. The engineers of the working party evidently reasoned
that the tin was sufficient to retain the liquid honey, and that it
was not necessary, therefore, to line it with wax. But a little while
after, when some honey was placed in the cell, they probably found
that the metal effected some change in it, for upon taking counsel
together they covered the surface