ENGINEERING METHODS 



holes here and there along the estimated course to the 

 main nest, and, when the tunnel was struck, take an- 

 other bearing. These bearings were afterward handed 

 to a friend, 1 who had them translated into a chart. In 

 some places the tunnel was as deep as six feet beneath 

 the surface, the average depth being about eighteen 

 inches. At the "exit hole," four hundred and eighty- 

 four feet from the nest, the tunnel was two feet deep. 

 Besides this main way there were two branch tunnels, 

 which deflected from the trunk-line near the country 

 road, in order to gain entrance to a peach orchard one 

 hundred and twenty feet distant. 



This chart shows better than any verbal description 

 the problem in underground road-making which the 

 cutting ants faced and effectually solved. [McC. 6, p. 

 224.] It quite confirms their ability, at least, to achieve 

 such an undertaking as described by Dr. Gideon Lin- 

 cecum, who observed a raid made by a colony of cutting 

 ants upon a garden situated on the bank of a creek that 

 flowed between their nest and the garden. In order to 

 reach the desired plants they drove a tunnel beneath 

 the bed of the stream, and, ascending on the opposite 

 shore, successfully raided the garden. [Li., p. 327.] 



Gen. S. W. Fountain, of Devon, Pennsylvania, a re- 

 tired officer of the United States army, recently (1909) 

 related to me an incident that quite confirms Lincecum's 

 statement. AVhile stationed at Fort Clark, Texas, during 

 the summer of 1879, with Troop "E," U.S. Cavalry, the 

 troop garden, whose conduct was assigned to Captain 

 (now Colonel) A. B. KaufTman, was so persistently raided 

 by cutting ants, who stripped the vegetables of their 



1 The late Mr. Strickland Kneass, C.E., Assistant to the Presi- 

 dent of the Pennsylvania Railroad. 



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