Honeycomb Concealed for Half a Century.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 5028, 8 June 1889, Page 3

Honeycomb Concealed for Half a Century.

A remarkable discovery has just been made at the Cathays Yard of tho Tall Yale Railway Company. A largo elm tree, grown in/ Gloucestershire, was being cut up into timber when, right in the very heart, a cavity measuring Bft by *lk in diameter was discover; d almost completely filled with the comb of the honey bee, together with a squirrel’s skull. No means of access to tho hollow was discoverable neither was decay anywhere apparaut, and around tho cavity itself no less than fifty “ rings ” each ring denoting a year’s growth, were counted, the outer bark being, too, without a flaw. The hollow was of uniform size throughout, and great though its dimensions were, it was practically filled with the comb, proving that tho bees must have been in possession for several years. Empty combs of tho queen bee also showed that they had swarmed. How the bees got therecan only be guessed, but it is surmised that a squirrel once occupied a decayed hole in tho tree, (cleared away tho decay, , occupied the cavity as its homo, and there died. Then the bees entered into possession and filled the whole with comb, when by some means the entrance, which must have been small, became stopped, tho large quantity of grub and fly being taken as 4ewtw?!fftliv9 U»at Uw scat figbVQlqijtarily

deserted. Then for fifty years the growth of the timber went on. The entrance being absolutely obliterated, and the bole being hermetically sealed, the comb was proserveu from decay for half a century, to be found at last in the way described.