SANITATION- -PERSONAL BENEVOLENCE 



as large as a man's thumb. Could the great missionary 

 explorer have fallen upon some species of Cremastogaster, 

 who thus utilized their tent-building habit? 



It is certain that ordinary showers do not stay, but 

 rather quicken, the commune's activity. One often 

 sees them followed almost immediately by a vigorous 

 rush of workers from the gates bearing earth-pellets. 

 Part of this dumpage may have been the inwash of dirt, 

 but most of it was evidently new earth, which, moistened 

 and softened, made easier digging, a fact which these 

 opportunists at once saw and utilized. 



Within the numerous galleries and rooms, all under 

 cover and in darkness, and thronged by myriads of in- 

 sects in continual movement, together with eggs, larvae, 

 and cocoons, there is of necessity much litter of various 

 sorts. This is regularly removed by the workers, who 

 may be seen carrying it forth and dumping it at points 

 outside the walls. The inter urban highways, as uncov- 

 ered by the writer, were never found obstructed by rub- 

 bish or fouled by filth. As compared with the streets 

 of many of our own cities and towns, they were models 

 of tidiness. 



The mound-making ants, while keeping at times to 

 certain fixed trails, do not lay out permanent roads by 

 which to communicate with surrounding fields. But 

 with such species as do thus unite their large communi- 

 ties with near environments, the roads are kept in ex- 

 cellent condition. For example, the disk or plaza or 

 pavement of the agricultural ants of Texas is kept during 

 summer hard and smooth, usually denuded of grass and 

 weeds, and well policed of extraneous matter. The sev- 

 eral roads that radiate into the harvest-fields of ant-rice 

 and other seeds are also kept scrupulously clean. 



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