CHATS ON SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY.

Waikato Times, Volume XIV, Issue 1204, 16 March 1880, Page 3

CHATS ON SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY.

CiTiLtHEN, diil you ever stop to consider the immense power possessed by a bumblebee '! An insect weighing no more than the eighth of an ounce is capable of "raising" a man weighing 220 pounds from a bench in a public park, and then having lots of lifting matenal left. Just stop and think of it ! The stinger of a bee is not near as large as the finest needle, but such is the force behind it that it can be driven through heavy pantscloth backed by metino drawer*, and into the fle>h about sixteen feet. If a mun could wield a crowbar in comparison, he could drive it through seven saw -mills and a whisky distillery at one blow. Nature couM not give the bee teeth and claws without spoiling its beauty, and to compensate she gave him this stinger as a weapon of attack and defence. If the bee had no weapon, ante, beetles, and bugs would cuff him around as they pleased, but, as it is, he is boss of the walk, and won t take a word from any of them. The bumble-bee is not naturally of a quarrelsome disposition, but he can't be »at down on over hilfan hour without feeling as if some one was doing him a great wrong. If left to himself he will crawl up your coat-sleeve, look around, and crawl down and go about his business, but if welcomed with a blow between the eyes he is going to be revenged if it breaks a leg. He invariably closes his eyes when he stings, and you have only to look a bee squaSfc in the face to discover when hp fooling 1 around and when he means fourteen per cent, per annum. The hay-field, is a favourite resort of the bumble-bee, but you can find him almost .anywhere else if you try hard. Having no pair of long hind legs, he cannot build his nest in a marsh, like the frogs, having no beak in which to carry straws, he cannot nest in a tree like a bird. He therefore takes to the grass, and under the roots of an old stump, or amid ft pile of rails, he rears his ggntle yoi^ng and gives them printed instructions as, to the iliflference b.et\yeen stinging aix-iuch stovepipe and runaway boys, Thy know-

ledge of old bees is wonderful. They know where the school-house is. They know when school is out. They can sail miles away from home, get in their work on a fanner's son weeding out corn, and return home without missing a fence corner or in need of an afternoon nap. As a rule they are early risers. Barefooted boys driving up the cows at daylight will find the bumble-bee out of bed and quite ready to begin the arduous labours of the day. Along about sundown he quits work, counts noses to see if the family are all in, and then stows himself away for a night of calm and peaceful repose. The legs of a bumble-bee are very crooked. This seems too bad at first sight, but you will soon discover that Nature was level-headed. His leg's were thus shaped to enable him to hang to the brim ©f a boy's straw hat. Were his legs straight he could not walk a fence rail in a high wind, nor could he turn around after reaching the top of a mullein stock. The stripes on a bee look \Ue a waste of material, but such is not the case. They furnish an extra covering over his ribs to keep the frosty air off, and they serve to stiffen his &>pinal column in his flights through the air. A bumble bee can fly at the rate of twenty miles an hour, if he wants to, but there ia no causo for him to fly any faster than a boy can run. He sometimes lives to be three years old, and is sometimes btricken down before he has travelled at all. His life is a precarious one. He may run a deacon outof a hay -field to-day and bo the big bee of the nest, and tomorrow a country school ma'ammay knock his head off with her umbrella. IN othing in natural history weighs more for his size than the bee, and nothing 1 in science works easier without cog-wheels or rubber rollers than his stinger. It is always ready, never out of repair, and satisfaction (to the bee is guaranteed in every case. — Detroit Free Press.