The Sunday Herald
Sunday, March 28,
1897 Syracuse, New York
Strange Battle
Recalled by
"Forty-niner"
of Cortland
And Told in His Own
Words
Incident Brought to
Mind by
Farmer Webster's
Bees.
Remarkable Conflict
Between California
Honeybees and Yellow
Jackets, Near
Vinegar Pond, Where
Pickled
Cucumbers Grew.
Portland, March 27 -
"I am astonished that there are so
many educated people that never
knew that honey bees would mate with
lightning bugs until they read of a
case of the kind that occurred in
Trexton in last Sundays Hearald." said
an old California Forty-niner to a
reporter for the Herald today."
"It was common
practice among bees and lightening
bugs in California when I was
there." said he. "Off in the region where
pickled cucumbers grew upon the vines
and upon which we fatted and
pickled pork on the hoof, as I told you a few
weeks ago, and where the giant
California trees grew, it was no uncommon
thing for prospectors for gold to discover
in the hollow of some of these
gigantic trees immense swarms of bees that
worked a night force who were
provided with illuminating wings. In fact, it
was necessary for such an economy
among bees in that region in order
to fill the hollows of these gigantic
trees.
"I remember of
finding a bee tree one day, the hollow
of which was so large that you could
easily have placed the Cortland Nominal
school building within it, were it
of a more oval shape. This hollow was
filled with thousands of tons of the most
delicious honey you ever tasted. There
was a large stream of honey that flowed
from a crack in this tree to a
depression in the ground about an eight of a
mile distant, forming a lake of pure honey
that was several rods across. This lake was
surrounded by hundreds of California bears
that fattened on this honey. They
would toil about Honey lake, as we
called it, through the day, only
leaving it long enough to visit Vinegar pond,
a mile distant, to quench their
inordinate thirst created by continually
lapping honey from this lake. We were
constantly supplied with the juiciest
and most delicately flavored bear steaks
from the bears we would shoot while on
there way from Honey lake to
Vinegar pond. These bears were
very docile, as they were never
hungry, and it was a common thing for
members of our prospecting party to
mingle with the bears at the lake side.
They never offered to resent any intrusion
from us; they were in fact less savage
than so many fattening hogs.
"This
particular variety of California bee is
much larger than our bees. They
average about the size of
sparrows. The queen is as large as a
robin. Not far from this particular
bee tree was located an immense nest of
yellow jackets, about the size of
humming birds. This nest was suspended
between two of the largest of the giant
trees and was three or four times the
size of the dome of the Capital at
Washington, D.C. It was these yellow
jackets that had created the crack in the bee
tree, through which the honey
flowed that created Honey lake. The
yellow jackets drilled the crack with their
stingers and thrived upon the honey that
ran out until the bees organized a
night attack on the yellow jackets nest.
Aerial Attack by
Night.
"While in camp
one night telling stories over our
supper of broiled bear steak and delicious
honey, with natural grown pickled
cucumbers and pickled pigs feet fresh from
the pen, we were startled by a
terrific roaring that resembled the sound of a
distant waterfall. We strengthened the
fastenings of our tent and got
inside, expecting a terrible storm to
burst upon momentarily. After several
minutes of suspense we ventured outside,
and beheld in the distance the
strangest sight imaginable. The night force of
bees were all out and flying in
regular line of battle, some fifty lines
deep, I should judge. The constant flashes
from their illuminated wings lighted the
surrounding country for a half
mile. You could see to read as plainly
as under an electric light. The roaring sound
created by their wings was what we
had believed to be the warning of a
great storm. We followed the
direction the bees were taking and some came near
the immense nest of yellow
jackets suspended between the trees.
The bees surrounded the yellow jacket
citadel by the million and soon
covered the entire outside until the dome like
shape of the yellow jacket nest glowed
with the constant flashing of the
wings of the bees, making it resemble
an immense ball of fire. The yellow jackets
inside the nest were at the mercy of
the bees, who tore large holes in
the nest and stung to death the yellow
jackets as fast as they were reached,
and who were evidently bewildered
by the flashing lights from the illuminated
wings of the bees. The roaring sound
created by the bees was augmented by
that of the doomed yellow jackets."
"The fight
lasted approximately three hours and the next
morning the ground was covered eight or
ten feet deep with the dead bodies of
the yellow jackets and bees for rods.
The great dome like nest of the
yellow jackets looked as though a cyclone
had struck it. The bees had simply
annihilated the yellow jackets, however,
and had lost thousands of their own number
as well."
"The second day after
the battle the stench that arose
from the scene of conflict was so
great that we were obliged to move our camp two
miles away. I have never cared for
honey since that time."
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