It is thought that the nautilus, of which we once gave a picture in the Museum, and which is a natural sailor, first suggested the idea of a boat or ship. It is probable, however, that mankind early saw that wood would float in water, and soon applied their observation to practical purposes. They doubtless first got upon logs, and then made rafts, to sail upon. By-and-by they doubtless built boats, and lastly ships.
There is a great difference between the beginning and end of an invention. The picture at the head of this article shows a savage upon his raft; the next is a view of the interior of a ship, displaying its floors and beams and timbers.
The art of building ships has advanced gradually, with the other arts of man. Here is a picture of a ship of war used about two thousand years ago. How very different it is from a ship of war of the present day! It has no deck, but is open like a boat; while a large ship of war of the present day, has four stories! The ancient ship of war would hold fifty or sixty people, while a ship of war, now, will hold a thousand.
Inquisitive Jack.
CHAPTER VIII.
About the bees.
It is well worth while to attend minutely to the business that is going on in the bee-hive. Nothing, in a great city, where we see houses, and streets, and manufactures, and a vast population, all busily engaged, can be more curious than what is to be witnessed in the city of the bees.
The queen is the mother of all the young bees, for she lays all the eggs from which young ones are hatched. When she wishes to lay the eggs, she goes to the cells which have been made by the workers, and having taken a peep into them, drops in her eggs, taking care to distribute them properly. It is said that a single queen will lay six thousand eggs in a single month, and sometimes one hundred thousand in a year!