PROPERLY speaking, so small an insect would have no right to be mentioned in a book where nobler game is treated of; but as honey-hunters have brought so much art to bear upon so humble a pursuit, I have thought that a short account might perhaps prove interesting.

The Bee is said to have been the pioneer of the white man across the American continent, as the Indians have noticed that wherever the bee made its appearance, the woodman's axe was soon heard felling the monarchs of the wilderness in its rear.

As the country, however, becomes settled, the wild honey-bee flies further and deeper into the undisturbed forests, so that the backwoodsman, who makes a business of collecting honey for sale, is compelled to follow the bees, and, consequently, the bee-hunter is rarely seen, except when he comes into the settlements to barter his ‘plunder’ for necessaries.

Spending so much time—often his whole life—alone in the forest, the bee-hunter generally becomes a superior deer-stalker and turkey-slayer, as well as honey collector; and we never met one yet who did not excel in the ‘gentle-craft,’—a hook and line being as invariably wound round his hat, as the bucket and axe are swung at his back, or his trusty rifle across his shoulder.

Like most men who pass much of their lives in the wilderness, the bee-hunter has but little to say for himself.