ANT COMMUNITIES 



this underground portagf- is sometimes equal to a per- 

 pendicular distance of nine feet, which has little me- 

 chanical relief from the inclination or roughness of the 

 gangways, sfome of the pebbles have from six to ten 

 times the weight of their carriers. I never saw anv 







copartnerships in these port;._ s. No ant came to aid 

 a struggling worker, and none seemed to need assistance. 



I have often admired the vigor and skill shown by 

 baggage-porters in shouldering and bearing up several 

 flights of stairs the immense trunks which American 

 ladies take with them on their travels. But here, if 

 we may be indulged in the comparison, is an insect 

 three-eighths of an inch long and the worker-minors are 

 shorter . who can cany up sharp inclines and perpen- 

 dicular surfaces, over a distance three-hundred times 

 its length, a burden six to ten times its weight. If. as 

 heretofore, we estimate the average man at five and a 

 half feet in length and one hundred and fifty pounds 

 in weight, our baggage-porter would needs carry a half- 

 ton trunk up one-tenth of a mile of stairway, to meet on 

 equal footing the emmet athletes of the Occident ant- 

 hills! 



The simplest type of ant architecture, as we have 

 seen, is a single cave excavated in the earth, or in wood, 

 or formed bv detritus cemented bv salivarv secretions. 



. / 



This grows into (second) an enlarged chamber or cham- 

 bers, with vestibule and connecting galleries. Thenre 

 third) developing downward, the simple cave or con- 

 nected chambers have grown into vast and deep-storied 

 rooms and avenues, like those of the agricultural. Oc- 

 cident, honey, and cutting ant- 



Expanding in the opposite direction a development 



upward instead of downward fourth) the little heaps 



_ 



