The Morris County chronicle., 1905-09-19
Ansel Sanderson's "Odd Fit. :"
BY c. A. STEPHENS.
~ * e 81 81 81 & z 2:SE

I
formed by cliffs 300 or 400 feet high
on both banks
These cliffs abound in assures,
chasms and caves, and if Ansel's ac-
count can be trusted-and he seems to
have the money to show for 1.-THE en-
tire canon was one vast apiary, where
wild bees have existed and gathered
sweets for centuries. They are in
such numbers as sometimes on certain
bright days to resemble clouds high up
the crags, and they FL the canon with
voluminous hum. The grassy, flow
cry plains for miles on each side of the
canon and thousands of towering
shrubs afford pasture for the bees.
Ansei assures me that there were
hundreds of these wild bee colonies,
whose enormous masses of comb and
honey were adhering in sheltered
chasms and beneath overhangs of the
rock. A number of caverns, too. ex-
tending far back into the cliff, have
been utilized as great storehouses of
comb by the bees. Not one swarm
alone occupies such cave, but fifty,
perhaps, or hundred, swarms, each
having its own queen, but all using the
mouth of the cavern as a common en-
trance. In consequence, the Stream of
bees issuing from and entering the
cave on q warm day is like a rapid,
roaring river of winged insect life.
1t was here that this quaint old
Texan pioneer and Ansel hunted
honey" most of which they extracted
from the comb and put up in Jars to
send to San Francisco and Galveston.
The wax they also pressed in cakes
and sold. It was their custom to send
a wagon load of honey and wax down
to the railroad station, thirty miles dis
tant, once fortnight, and sometimes
in good weather once week.
Some of the colonies and their depos-
it's of honey could be reached from the
bed of the canon, along the river bank.
by climbing up the erags. Others were
accessible by means of long ladders
But the most copious stores We're at
greater heights 200 and even 300 feet
above the river bed.
When seen from below the mass of
comb looked no larger than bacon
hams, but when reached was found to
amount to several barrels of honey.
There were also great sheltered holes
and hooks literally packed with old
comb and dripping with brown, discol-
ored sweets.
None of them were within thirty or
forty feet of the top of the cliffs, and
they were never in situations where a
man could climb down to them. Many
of the crags oyerhung. indeed; and a
single glance over wSs sufficient to turn
ones head dizzy.
But the veteran bee hunter had de-
vised rope ladder, or rather a heavy
rope with loops in which to rest the
feet as he climbed up and down. This
rope he attached to a crowbar driven
deep into the earth, or set firmly in
crevices Of the lodges, and then with
hamper on his back for the honeycomb,
and provided with a sheath knife and
a sort of short handled fishspear, old
Sweet-Killer" had accustomed himself
to climb down these awful crags to
plunder the aerial stores of honey.
To protect themselves from the stings
of the enraged insects the men wore
gloves and nets over their hats. They
had also an ordinary bee smoker, by
means of which tAe bees could be rem
dered "docile" for time.
After the death of Say, Ansel con-
tinued his singular vocation, having as
partner a son of the old bee hunter.
They disagreed in the matter of the
profits, however, and Ansel moved to
point on the north side of the canon,
where he lived for ten years.
So dangerous business would seem
to make trusty companion very de-
sirable, if not absolutely necessary, but
thenceforth Ansel worked alone here,
descending and ascending the crags
unaided, and with no one to call in case
of accident. 1t must have developed in
him wonderful degree of self reliance.
Something of Lois instinct for saw
ing money appears also to have taken
possession of him as he approached old
age. He labored steadily and carefully
and boarded his money.
At first he entertained no thought of
ever returning home, but as years
passed by he began planning to do so
when he should be fifty years old. and
had savings sufficient to live on.
1t was impossible that man could
work for ten years at so perilous an
occupation without adventures Of some
kind. Ansel met with few, however.
Once a party of desperate characters
came to his cabin to rob him, but he
walked and heard them in time to con-
ceal himself.
One of his experiences while clearing
a sheltered chasm of honeycomb was
startling. He had been at work for
three or four hours, and had carried
ten hamperfuls of comb and honey up
his looped rope ladder, having nearly
fifty feet to ascend with each load.
There was great deal of "old honey"
here. and myriads of bees, and after
every upward trip he was obliged to
use the smoker to keep them quiet.
while he forked out hamperfuI of
comb.
The place almost overhung the river,
which flowed at the foot of the cliffs,
300 feet below a situation which
would have caused an Inexperienced
person to turn pale and glddy. But
Ansel had come not to mind being sus-
pended at such awful heights, and in
deed was accustomed never to look
4. 49,. ~