we
have seen, fail about the end of May, those of the chaparral belt and
lower forests are in full bloom in June, those of the upper and alpine
region in July, August, and September. In Scotland, after the best of
the Lowland bloom is past, the bees are carried in carts to the
Highlands, and set free on the heather hills. In France, too, and in
Poland, they are carried from pasture to pasture among orchards and
fields in the same way, and along the rivers in barges to collect the
honey of the delightful vegetation of the banks. In Egypt they are taken
far up the Nile, and floated slowly home again, gathering the
honey-harvest of the various fields on the way, timing their movements
in accord with the seasons. Were similar methods pursued in California
the productive season would last nearly all the year.

The average elevation of the north half of the Sierra is, as we have
seen, considerably less than that of the south half, and small streams,
with the bank and meadow gardens dependent upon them, are less abundant.
Around the head waters of the Yuba, Feather, and Pitt rivers, the
extensive tablelands of lava are sparsely planted with pines, through
which the sunshine reaches the ground with little interruption. Here
flourishes a scattered, tufted growth of golden applopappus, linosyris,
bahia, wyetheia, arnica, artemisia, and similar plants; with manzanita,
cherry, plum, and thorn in ragged patches on the cooler hill-slopes. At
the extremities of the Great Central Plain, the Sierra and Coast Ranges
curve around and lock together in a labyrinth of mountains and valleys,
throughout which their floras are mingled, making at the north, with its
temperate climate and copious rainfall, a perfect paradise for bees,
though, strange to say, scarcely a single regular bee-ranch has yet been
established in it.

Of all the upper flower fields of the Sierra, Shasta is the most
honeyful, and may yet surpass in fame the celebrated honey hills of
Hybla and hearthy Hymettus. Regarding this noble mountain from a bee
point of view, encircled by its many climates, and sweeping aloft from
the torrid plain into the frosty azure, we find the first 5000 feet from
the summit generally snow-clad, and therefore about as honeyless as the
sea. The base of this arctic region is girdled by a belt of crumbling
lava measuring about 1000 feet in vertical breadth, and is mostly free
from snow in summer. Beautiful lichens enliven the faces of the cliffs