FAZENDA LIFE. 105 
beneath. The interior of all of them swarmed with the 
different kinds of inhabitants ; the little white ones, the 
larger black ones with brown heads and powerful forceps, 
and in each were found one or two very large swollen 
white ones, quite different in dimensions and appearance 
from the rest, probably the queens. With the assistance 
of the negroes, Mr. Agassiz made, for future examination, 
a large collection of all the different kinds of individuals 
thus living together in various numeric proportions, and 
he would gladly have carried away one of the nests, but 
they are too cumbersome for transportation. The Cupim 
nests are very different from the dwellings of the Sauba 
ants, which have large external openings. The latter 
make houses by excavating, and sometimes undermine a 
hill so extensively, with their long galleries, that when 
a fire is lighted at one of the entrances to exterminate 
them, the smoke issues at numerous openings, distant per- 
haps a quarter of a mile from each other, showing in how 
many directions they have tunnelled out the hill, and 
that their winding passages communicate with each other 
throughout. So many travellers have given accounts of 
these ant-houses, and of the activity of their inhabitants 
in stripping and carrying off the leaves of trees to deposit 
them in their habitations, that it hardly seems worth while 
to repeat the story. Yet no one can see without aston- 
ishment one of these ant-armies travelling along the road 
they have worn so neatly for themselves, those who are 
coming from the trees looking like a green procession, al- 
most hidden by the fragments of leaves they carry on their 
backs, while the returning troops, who have already de 
posited their burden, are hurrying back for more. There 
seems to be another set of individuals running to and fro, 
5* 
