What has been said of the natural features of Dunk Island is applicable to the coastal tract extending, say, 300 miles, than which no land is more fertile.  A very notable advantage is enjoyed here.  Brammo Bay is but three or four minutes’ steam from the track of vessels which make weekly trips up and down the coast, and by arrangements with the proprietary of one of the lines we have the boon of a regular weekly mail and of cheap carriage of supplies.  Without this connecting link, life on the island would have been very different.  The Companies running parallel lines of steamers, one skirting the coast and the other outside the islands in deep water, have done much to open up the wealth of the agricultural land of North Queensland.  Trade follows the flag.  Here the flag of the mercantile marine has frequently been first planted to demonstrate the certainty of trade.

Without apology, a few facts are submitted which utterly condemn the practicability of one department of island enterprise, and which possibly (without protest) may provide a reason for the placing of other branches of industry beyond the pale of recognition by those who devote every moment of time to, and make never-ending sacrifices of ease and health and comfort on behalf of, what folks term the main chance.  When after some expenditure in the purchase of plant and material, and no little labour, the couple of beehives that formed the original stock of a project for the harvesting of the nectar which had hitherto gone to waste or been disposed of by unreflecting birds, had increased to a dozen, and honey of pleasant and varying flavour flowed from the separator at frequent intervals, hopes ran high of the earning of a modest profit from one of the cleanest, nicest, most entertaining and innoxious of pursuits.

No one who takes up bees and who studies their manners and methods can allow his admiration to remain dormant.  It is not the fault of the bees if he does not become ashamed of himself in some respects; nor are they to blame if the wisest men fail quite to comprehend some of the wonders they perform.  Only by those “who list with care extreme,” are their gentle tones heard aright; and even from such are some secrets hidden.  How is it that an egg deposited by the queen-mother in a more than ordinarily capacious compartment hatches a grub, “just like any other,” which grub, feasting upon the concentrated food stored within its cell, expands and lengthens and emerges an amber queen in all her glory?  Bee-keepers learn that the queen and the drones are the only perfect insects in the hive, the hoard of willing, bustling slaves being females in a state of arrested development.  Each worker might have been a queen but for the fact that environment and a special food were not vouchsafed in the embryonic stage.  By making artificial queen-cells, which the workers provide for, men bring about the birth of queens at will.  Not yet has the secret of the manufacture of royal jelly been revealed.