riod of cessation from labour out of doors has arrived. They now live on their collected provisions, till the reduced temperature of the atmosphere causes them to lose their appetite, and to become torpid. The sleep of this little insect is by no means so deep, or so continuous, as that of many other species of animals; and, had not the Creator endowed them with the wonderful industry and forethought we have described, the whole species would soon have become extinct in this north. ern climate, and indeed in almost any climate of the temperate zone. Some naturalists have even disputed the fact of the torpidity of the bee, under any ordinary circumstances; while others have gone to an opposite extreme. We believe there is no doubt, that in an equable temperature approaching to frost, bees do become torpid,-a proof of which is to be found in the fact, that a hive, buried, in the beginning of winter, under ground, will survive till spring, when it may be disinterred in a healthy state, without much exhaustion of its winter stock. Now, it has been proved by various experiments, that a current of air through a hive is absolutely necessary to the existence of bees in their active state, and that this ventilation is kept up by means of the bees themselves, who use their wings for that purpose, which produces the humming noise to be observed in hives. Were the bees, therefore, when buried, awake and active, they would assuredly be suffocated. Several of our most celebrated naturalists, however (and, among the rest, the elder Huber), affirm positively, that bees do not become torpid in winter. He says, that the heat of a well-peopled hive is as high as 86° of Fahrenheit, even in the depth of winter, when the thermometer, in the open air, is several degrees below zero, this heat being generated by the bees clustering together, and keeping themselves in motion; and that, even in this degree of external cold, they may be heard buzzing, as they always do when ventillating the hive. Reaumur, as well as other distinguished observers, as positively maintains the opposite, and more popular, opinion. Our own belief is, that the truth lies between ;—that the or dinary state of a hive, in cold weather, is, as we have already

observed, a state of torpidity, but that the bees are easily excited, and that, when roused, the temperature of the hive quickly rises, in proportion to their alarm or irritation. While we think, therefore, that Huber's experience may thus be accounted for, we heartily acquiesce in the following observations of Reaumur, taken as expressing the general state of a hive in winter. It has been established,' says he,' with a wisdom which we cannot but admire-with which every thing in nature has been made and ordained-that, during the greater part of the time in which the country furnishes nothing to bees, they have no longer need to eat. The cold, which arrests the vegetation of plants,-which deprives our fields and meadows of their flowers, throws the bees into a state in which nourishment ceases to be necessary to them; it keeps them in a sort of torpidity, in which no transpiration from them takes place, or at least during which the quantity of what transpires is so inconsiderable, that it cannot be restored by aliment, without their lives being endangered.'

The following humane observations, in a recent publication, are well worthy of attention, and we strongly recommend to bee-breeders the practice of Mr. Nutt, as detailed by this author, by which the cruelty he deprecates may be avoided, even with profit.

"The usual practice of obtaining honey from domestic bees, was one of great, and, as it should seem, wanton and unnecessary cruelty. The little creatures, after they had toiled throughout the whole season, were not only deprived of all the winter store which they had accumulated, but they were smoked with sulphur in the hive, by means of which both old and young were entirely cut off. There is a degree of unfeeling cruelty in this, at which the mind revolts; because, though all creatures are, in some way or other, adapted for the use of man, the destruction of the creatures is no part of man's legitimate occupation. He has, undoubtedly, a right to his share of every production of the earth, which can in any way contribute to his comfort; but it is his duty and his interest to take that share, in wisdom, not in wantonness; and he could,

upon every occasion, so manage matters, as that the quantity which he takes, might benefit that which is left; and thus, while he uses, he might ameliorate and improve all that grows and lives around him; and so be the adorner of creation, and not the destroyer.

'Many plans have been resorted to, for the preservation of bees, and the leaving of as much honey as shall support them during winter. One of the most recent, and perhaps the best of these, is that introduced by Mr. Nutt, a cultivator of bees in Lincolnshire. In this method, three boxes are placed together, with a door for entrance in the central box only, but with a communication between it and each of the lateral ones. By means of ventilation, the two side boxes are kept at a heat which is well adapted for labouring bees, but below that at which the young are hatched. The bees are placed, at first, in the central box only; and when the first swarm of the season is produced, and would depart, admission is given to one of the side boxes; and, when that is filled, similar admission is given into the other. The temperature of these is regulated by means of ventilators; and, when it is ascertained that one of them is full, as much ventilation is given to it, as drives all the bees into the central box; the communication between them is closed, and the box is removed, without the destruction of a single bee.

'This is not the only advantage gained; for the honey is purer, and altogether of superior quality. The low temperature of the side boxes not only prevents a queen bee from taking up her abode in them; but none of the eggs, the young, or the substances required for their nourishment in the larva state, are ever deposited in those boxes. Thus they contain only honey-cells and honey; and as those cells are constructed only when they are required, the combs are always full.

'By this means, from one swarm of bees, cultivated for five years, Mr. Nutt obtained 737 lbs. of honey, and left 712 lbs. during the currency of the time for the maintenance of the bees, the increase of which was regularly progressing du

ring the whole time, which, from its superior quality, would be worth fourteen guineas, on the average of every year, besides the expense of bringing it to market. There are very many situations in this country, where every cottager might cultivate one such establishment of bees, the profits of which would suffice to furnish himself and his family with comfortable clothing, and also to replace their household furniture.'*

SEVENTH WEEK-FRIDAY.

HYBERNATION OF THE SNAIL.

THE garden-snail has its congeners in the waters, which, in outward appearance, bear a striking resemblance to it; but its habits and instincts are quite different from those of the same genus in another element. It is admirably adapted to its mode of life, and is furnished with organs almost as complete as the largest animal; with a tongue, brain, salival ducts, glands, nerves, stomach, and intestines; with liver, heart, and blood-vessels. These it possesses in common with other animals, but it has some striking peculiarities,—one of which is, that, of four flexible horns with which it is furnished, the two uppermost are gifted with eyes, which appear like black spots on their extreme ends, and which it can hide, by a very swift contraction, in the interior of its body. Every one knows, that another peculiarity which distinguishes it from other land animals, is its shell, which it carries on its back wherever it goes, and which serves at once as its house for lodging, and as its armour for defence.

The history of this animal, so far as it suits our present purpose to advert to it, is as follows:-Each individual snail is both a father and a mother; and it lays its eggs in shady and moist hollows, which it excavates with a member which is called its foot, as by this it has the power of locomotion These eggs are hatched, sooner or later, according to the tem

* Mudie's edition of Wesley's Natural Philosophy, vol. ii. pp. 264, 266.

perature, producing little snails, exactly resembling their parent, but so delicate that a sun-stroke destroys them, so that few, comparatively speaking, reach the end of the first year, when they are sufficiently defended by the hardness of their shell. The animal, at its first exclusion, lives solely on the pellicle of the egg from which it was produced. Providence,' as Kirby justly observes, which, in oviparous and other animals, has provided for the first nutriment of the young in different ways, appropriating the milk of the mother to the young of quadrupeds, the yolk of the egg to those of birds, tortoises, and lizards, and the white of the egg to frogs and toads, has made this pellicle, or coat, the best nutriment of the young snail. In fact, this pellicle, consisting of carbonate of lime, united to animal substance, is necessary to produce the calcareous secretion of the mantle, and to consolidate the shell, as yet too soft for exposure.' When this natural envelope is eaten, the young snail finds its nourishment in the vegetable soil around it. After the concealment of a month, it appears on the vegetable productions of the garden or meadow, which it seems indiscriminately to devour,—its house still growing with its growth, till it has completed five convolutions, by which time the animal has attained its full size.

These snails cease feeding when the first chills of autumn are felt; and generally associating in considerable numbers, on hillocks, in the banks of ditches, or in thickets and hedges, they set above their preparations for their winter retreat. They first expel the contents of their intestines, and then, concealing themselves under moss, grass, or dead leaves, each forms, by means of its foot, and the viscid mucus which it secretes, a cavity large enough to contain its shell. The mode in which it effects this is remarkable; collecting a considerable quantity of the mucus on the sole of its foot, a portion of earth and dead leaves adheres to it, which it shakes off on one side; a second portion is again collected and deposited, and so on, till it has reared around itself a kind of wall, of sufficient height to form a cavity that will contain its shell;