their way out of the hive, pay for their intrusion
with their lives, as indeed is only just. A hive
that has been thus attacked, even when it makes
a successful resistance, is subject to peculiar
dangers; for if any of the inhabitants of a
neighbouring hive happen to have joined the invaders,
and tasted the sweets of spoil, they are likely to
incite their brethren to make an attack in their
turn, and another slaughter takes place, and if
they are too strong for the community, every
one of the inmates is killed, and the contents of
the hive devoured, the only chance of the rightful
owners getting a portion being apparently by
joining the marauders. It is only, however, in
the confusion that they could do this; for
numerous as are the inhabitants of a hive, they
know each other. An instance is recorded of a
weak swarm attempting to mingle with one more
numerous, but they were at once recognised as
strangers, and furiously attacked and driven off,
a second attempt proving as unsuccessful as the
first. Once when a weak swarm succeeded in
making their way into the hive along with the
rest, they were discovered, and in spite of an
obstinate resistance, in which a large number
were killed, they were quickly driven out.
Another instance is related of two swarms being
hived together, which went on building without
the two queens being aware of each other's
presence. The subjects worked amicably together
in building their cells without interfering
with their respective monarchs, but,
when these latter met, the usual fight ensued
until one was killed, when the amalgamation of
the two communities under one head became
complete.

Some cruel experiments have been made with
bees, as with most other living things which
man can get into his power. A queen was
deprived of her wings, and thus rendered unable
to quit the hive; nevertheless, she continued to
deposit her eggs as before, in spite of the cruel
operation to which she had been subjected.
Another was deprived of her antennæ, and the
consequence of this was that she lost the power
of directing her trunk directly at her food, but
had to grope about for it, very much as a man
would have to do if he were deprived of his
eyesight. The workers were kind and attentive to
her, but she seemed insensible to their caresses,
and at times quite delirious. Another queen,
similarly mutilated, was introduced into the
hive, but she took no notice of her, and the
workers, too, appeared to pity the stranger's
condition, as they did that of their own queen,
and suffered her to wander about wherever she
pleased, both queens dropping their eggs at
random, as if they had lost the faculty of
distinguishing the cells, or were indifferent in the
miserable condition to which they had been
reduced, what became of them. That the
workers had been influenced by pity in leaving
the stranger unmolested, may be inferred from
the fact that on a perfect queen being introduced
into the same hive, she was at once seized and
made a prisoner. Eventually their own queen
wandered out of the hive without any of her
subjects following her or seeming to care what
became of her, and so the poor queen crawled
away and died in solitude.

THE PERRAN SANDS.
HAST thou ever, in a travel
Through the Cornish lands,
Heard the great Atlantic roaring,
On the firm wide tawny flooring
Of the Perran Sands?

'Cross a heath of sterile grandeur,
Underlaid with ore,
Hard by clank of mighty delving,
Pass ye down a roadway shelving
Slowly to the shore.

Down and down, a joyful terror
Burdening the mind,
As the booming and the clangour
Of the breakers' lofty anger
Cometh on the wind.

Down with quickening pulses,
Till ye reach a strand,
Where each day and night defiant
Waves advance to hold a giant
Tournay on the land.

Sea-rent gully, where the billows
Come in great unrest;
Fugitives all white and reeking,
Flying from some vengeful sea-king
Striding from the West.

Level broadway, ever ermined
By the ocean verge;
Girt by sand-hills, swelling, shoaling
Down to imitate the rolling
Of the lordly surge.

Either side, dark solemn headlands
Sentinel the way,
Calmly looking on the curling
Summits of the breakers, hurling
Javelins of spray.

Nine large files of troubled water
Turbulently come;
From the bosom of his mother,
Each one leaping on his brother,
Scatters lusty foam.

In the sky a wondrous silence,
Cloud-surf mute and weird;
In the distance, still uplifting,
Ghostly fountains vanish, drifting
Like a Druid's beard.

Spreading out a cloth of silver,
Moan the broken waves;
Sheet of phosphorescent foaming,
Sweeping up to break the gloaming
Stillness of the caves.

Deep-mouthed wounds that, brine-tormented,
Gape from Titan sides;
Gashes in the rock supernal,
I by the great diurnal
Tunnelling of tides.

In the sea road, two retainers,
Standing out alone,
Mock the tempest-vexed Atlantic
Coming to be driven frantic
By eternal stone.