Chapter 6

The following account of the process of transplanting bodily a tribe of wild bees, is given in the notes to _The Tay_, a descriptive poem of considerable merit by David Millar. (Perth, Richardson, 1830.) 'When the boy, whose hobby leads him in that direction, has found out a "byke," he marks the spot well, and returns in the evening, when all its inmates are housed for the night. Pushing a twig into the hole as far as it will go, in case he should lose it by the falling in of the rubbish, he commences digging freely till the hum of the hive is distinctly heard, when he proceeds more cautiously to work. By this time, the more adventurous of the bees come out to ascertain what is going on, and are caught as they make their appearance, and put into a bottle. When the nest is fully exposed, it is lifted carefully up, and placed, as it stood, in a box prepared for it, along with the captured bees. The lid being now closed, the whole is carried home, and placed in the spot assigned for it in the garden. Next morning, a hole in the side of the box is quietly opened, when one or two of the strangers soon make their appearance, wondering, evidently, where they are, but apparently resolved to make the most of their new circumstances. At last, they rise slowly on the wing, and buzz round and round their new habitation for some time, taking, no doubt, special note of its every peculiarity. The circle of observation is then gradually enlarged, till it is thirty or forty yards in circumference, when the earnest reconnoitrer disappears, to return again in a short time with something for the general good. The curious in those matters, by placing the grubs of all the different kinds in one box beside a hive in operation, will soon have a choice assortment of all descriptions, working as amicably together as if they were all of the same family.'

COPPER-PLATE ENGRAVINGS COPIED ON STONE.

In No. 439 of this Journal, Lieutenant Hunt received the credit of inventing a process by which copper-plate engravings may be transferred to stone, and the copies from a single print thus multiplied indefinitely. A correspondent, however, makes us fear that Lieutenant Hunt may have been unacquainted with what others had done before him. The process, it is stated, is not at all new; although, so far as we have heard, it has never been applied to the transfer of complicated pictorial engravings.

SONNET:

ON MY LITTLE BOY'S FIRST TRYING TO SAY 'PA-PA.'

Marked day! on which the earliest dawn of speech Glimmered, in trial of thy father's name! Albeit the sound imperfect, yet the aim Thrilled chords within me, deeper than the reach Of music! Happy hearted, I did claim The title which those silver tones assigned; And in me leaped my spirit, as when first The father's strange and wondering feeling came! While this dear thought woke up within my mind, Which careful memory in her folds has nursed: 'If thus to earthly parent's heart so dear His child's first accents, though imperfect all-- Dear, too, to FATHER-GOD, when faint doth fall His new-born's half-formed "Abba" on his ear!'

P.

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_Just Published, Price 6d. Paper Cover_,

CHAMBERS'S POCKET MISCELLANY: forming a LITERARY COMPANION for the RAILWAY, the FIRESIDE, or the BUSH.

VOLUME VII.

To be continued in Monthly Volumes.

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The present number of the Journal completes the Seventeenth Volume (new series), for which a title-page and index have been prepared, and may be had of the publishers and their agents.

END OF SEVENTEENTH VOLUME.

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Printed and Published by W. and R. CHAMBERS, Edinburgh.

Sold by W. S. ORR, Amen Corner, London.

End of Project Gutenberg's Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 443, by Various