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294 CHANNEL ISLANDS :
as to be restrained in their situation, merely by the
nicety of their adaptation. After this covering is
fitted in, there remains still, a concavity, which receives
the convex end of the succeeding cell, and in
this manner, the indefatigable little animal proceeds,
until she has completed the six or seven cells which
compose the cylinder. The process which one of these
bees employs, in cutting the pieces of leaf that compose
her nest, is worthy of attention : nothing can
be more expeditious: she is no longer about it, than
we should be with a pair of scissors. After hovering
for some moments over a rose bush (in Berhou, it is
the wild brier, that is laid under contribution) as if to
reconnoitre the ground, the bee alights on the leaf
whicli she has selected, usually taking her station upon
its edge, so that the margin passes between her legs.
With her strong mandibles, she cuts, without intermission,
in a curve line, so as to detach a triangular
portion. When this hangs by the last fibre, lest its
weight should carry it to the ground, she balances her
little wings for flight; and the very moment it parts
from the leaf, flies off with it in triumph, the detached
portion remaing bent between her legs, in a direction
perpendicular to her body. Thus, without rule or
compasses, do these diminutive creatures mete out the
materials for their work, into portions of an ellipsis,
into ovals, or circles, accurately accommodating the
dimensions of the several pieces of each figure to each
other. W^hat other architect could carry impressed on
the tablet of his memory, the entire idea of the edifice
which he has to erect; and destitute of square or plumb
line, cut out his materials in their exact dimensions.
ALDERNEY. 295
without a single mistake? Yet this is what our little
bee invariably does.”
This is a long extract, but it is a curious one ; and
Berhou lies at so small a distance from England, that
it is possible some naturalist may visit Alderney purposely
to observe the habits of the apis centuncularis.
Berhou is of considerable extent ; but is not inhabited,
unless by the bee, the petrel, and by a rather
extensive colony of rabbits, which are now nearly extinct
in Alderney, where they were at one time,
equally plentiful as in Berhou.
I had reason to consider myself extremely fortunate
in finding, just at the time I could have wished, a
happy union of wind and tide, with moderate weather,
to undertake the voyage back to Guernsey ; though it
would have been difficult, if not impracticable, to have
reached the Caskets. Indeed, had the weather been
such, as to have rendered a passage in an open boat
hazardous, it would have been impossible for me to
have left the island; since the only decked vessels
were engaged in exporting potatos to England. At
full tide, and with a fine steady wind, we cleared the
pier of Braye, after a little tossing in the extraordinary
swell, which, fair weather or foul, always sets
into the little harbour. Daylight made the swinge
greatly more formidable, than I had found it on the
evening I arrived in Alderney ; and the stronger
wind, and the different direction of it, also increased
the agitation of the sea : but we safely navigated this
perilous passage ; and with the tide in our favour, soon
left Alderney a-stern. Viewed from the sea, Alderney
is certainly the least captivating of the Channel