Searching BEE-L archives is a two step process.  The first step is to
send the service request to the server:
                 [log in to unmask]
with a line or lines of mail that read:
                 SEARCH BEE-L topic1

In the above case, LISTSERV will serch THE ENTIRE ARCHIVES(!) for all
remote references to topic1.  If the search request was
                 SEARCH BEE-L Bears in the woods
LISTSERV would return the number of ALL POSTS containing any subset of
the words BEARS and IN and THE and WOODS.  A post containing the
phrase 'fruit BEARing' or 'BEAR with me' would be a hit.  Obviously,
Bears in the woods is not a good search arguement.

The search item can be enclosed in quotes.
                 SEARCH BEE-L 'topic1'
will only return exact references to topic1.  This can be good news and
bad.
                 SEARCH BEE-L 'Bears in the woods'
will return all posts containing the exact phrase 'bears in the woods'
but will not return the post about the bear in the wood.

Searches may also be delimited with dates.
                 SEARCH BEE-L topic2 since April 1998

LISTSERV will return to sender all general references to topic2 made
since April, 1998.
                 SEARCH BEE-L 'topic2' since April 1998
will only return EXACT references to topic2 made since April 1998.

Retrieving the posts:

Results of the SEARCH command will be the 'post numbers' containing the
reference to the requested topic.  In the same response LISTSERV will
include excerpts of the post which contains the reference to the topic.
If that excerpt shows that the post is of interest to the user, the user
must submit the GETPOST command to the server:
                 [log in to unmask]
The format of the GETPOST command is:
                GETPOST BEE-L postnum1,postnum2,...,postnumn

LISTSERV will THEN return to sender the entire post in which the topic
was referenced.