The Sun.
London, England, 1817-12-04 00:00:00

lift? I...;TELI46E'NCi.

•
DCG. I.—We Alittre bad a very I
'dull sale for Hap.; durittir. tte lrtst veck. We can
not correctly quote you the price's, dh diet c is tiOs'.
to 30s. per cwt. difference in the vat ions opiutonS
respecting them, but we suppose they may be'
stAte,l as under ':—

Kent Bap
Ditto Pocked... 24h-to 29!. and 3ul.

:iii'ssux Bags . . • to t 5!.
Ditto Pod: is 231. to

net e is.a report to-day tinit the May is Up-
wards of 75,0001. but it is not generally be-
lieved.

A Memorial, signed by a large -number of the
inost.respettable hop planters in Kent, is al 0e....
tt) be presented to the Lords of the Treasury, iii
"eousequenee-of a ruinour of an intended applica-
tion tti•their Lordships, on the part of the brew,
erS, to allow the importation of foreign hops on
low. duties. The Memorial states, that 011 the
average of the lust five years, the produce and
price have 'been insufficient to remunerate the
planters for their expences'; and:itwas not till the
Midsummer of the present year, when the stock
in hand mos nearly exhausted, and the growing
erop much injureally that an advance in
price took place; and.. this benefited those oniv :
who made the artuLt one of ,_.peculatiwo. A
great proportion of the growth of this ye,,t 29
-
also similarly- circumstanced, the extraoriV,oary:l
high prices been obtained after nearly the
whole of their crops had been sold by most of the
planters. Tue Memorial thetelot-c prays, that as
the coltivatiod of hops employs a large capital as
well as many of the labouring poor duroq the
winter season, no such encouragement will be
held wit to the foreign plantersi.by a ainiinutimi
of the duty on importation, as shaft induce theto
to. extend their plantations, in the hope of intro.'.
decing their prodtice into this country, to the fite
tore discouragement of our own growth, and to
•the CotisNuent iniury of 'the revenue.—(Maid-
stone Journal, Dec. 2 ) •

A sit gtilar and 'extraordioary discovery in nft.,
total history was made in this town about a lova
night ago. As one of the stonemasons, in the
enqi/Oy of the D.)ck Trustees, was dressing, on
the sea-wall of the Regent's Dock, a tinge stOne„
brought from the Western Point quarry, and afro'
he had broken a considerible thickness from its
°lnside,. lie discovered, in a hole of small (Hanle-
eel., which was prrtiidly filled with 'clay and 'el
loamy said, Oleic bees, in a state of animation;
to the astonishment 'of. himself and
his fellow-w,orkmen, many of whom were wit-
nesses of this Strange phenomenon. The fore-,
matt of the works,put than into his.handkerchief.
where they remained for several Innis afterwards ;
but while exhib.tiog his newly resuscitated strang-
ers, two of them flew away, and he voluntarily
gave the third its liberty. These bees are des-,'
et ihed to its as .having been of the drone species.
We have questioned the p...r,0n as Id tke troth of
der singular' a statement, and he affirms, that they
were found in the interifsr of the solid stone, at
weihrve destribed,above„ withbut'aoy perceptible
Cornmun'catioll froth without. Ttiuds, and other
similar animal•-, have been fotoul, in a living
state, io situations equally ettraordinary ; but we
never heard before or. aoy- or the winged (Pipe
ing incased in the heart of a solid stone. The
discovery is singular, and will furnish 'matter Of
curious speculation to the natoalist and the obilo
sonher.—(Li&erpoot Courier.)
The following st oerteut will probably elucidate
" this ,strange phenomenon.''—As soon as we
heard of the above circumstance, which occurred
on'Satmday, the Ist inst. we went on the. Tue-
sday morning following to inspect the stone in
which which the bees, as they are tailed, had beets
lodged, but it had, about an hour before, bee:t
put into the barge for the purpose of being taken
to another part of the doct. In our. inquiries of •
Mr. Dowell, lle master mason, the person 'who'
had the bees in his 'possession, whether any cre-
vice had been observed on the outside of tire stone,.
by which tiny cnuld have gained access to the
abode in which they were fount!, be could give
Ifs no certain information on this• point, neither
negatively mor affirmatively.' But he spewed Its a
stone of the exact description of the one in goes-
tion, in which there was what he edict, a " ssna
hole," filled with loamy sand, which extended[
front the surface to the depth of ten inches into
the stone. This loamy sand, it is conjectured,.
would, after being exposed to the air, become
suffici6nly dry to be capable of removing itself
on the least change of situation in the stone, anti
thereby excaystiig a In.le such as had been found
•in the stone where the bees were discovered. As
soon as we had ascertained this fact, our wonder
in the preceding statement ceased, as we think
that of , our readers will also after they have resat
this article : this %vitt also account for our not
having; before noticed lie circumstance. The stone
front which the bees were taken, had, we under-
stand, been some weeks laying at the quarry for
transmission to this place : in the early part of
September we had some sharp frosts, and it is not
improbable the bets had sheltered themselves its
the cavern in which' the masons found them, from

the inclemency of the weather at that tine. Where
they were first discovered, we ondeistand, they,,.
were in a state of torpor, hot the warmth oC
Doweirs poCket, in which they had bccal placed/.
completely reanimated them.—(Liver p 0.94 Adtlere•
Lisa ),