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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



site direction. I then went to the niizen- 

 top (fifty feet above water), and saw that 

 the luminous waves or pulsations were real- 

 ly traveling parallel to each other, and that 

 their apparently rotatory motion, as seen 

 from the deck, was caused by their high 

 speed and the greater angular motion of the 

 nearer than the more remote part of the 

 waves. The light of these waves looked ho- 

 mogeneous and lighter, but not so sparkling 

 as phosphorescent appearances at sea usual- 

 ly are, and extended from the surface well 

 under water ; they lit up the white bottoms 

 of the quarter-boats in passing. I judged 

 them to be twenty-five feet broad, with dark 

 intervals of about seventy-five between each, 

 or one hundred from crest to crest, and their 

 period was seventy-four to seventy-five per 

 minute, giving a speed, roughly, of eighty- 

 four English miles an hour. ... I could 

 only distinguish six or seven waves . . . 

 I observed no kind of change in the wind, 

 the swell, or in any part of the heavens, nor 

 were the compasses disturbed. A bucket 

 of water was drawn, but was unfortunately 

 capsized before daylight. The ship passed 

 through oily-looking fish-spawn on the even- 

 ing of the 15th and morning of the 16th." 



An Imported Sovereign. In a communi- 

 cation to the Academy of Natural Sciences 

 of Philadelphia the Rev. Mr. McCook re- 

 cords an instance of the adoption of a fer- 

 tile queen of Crematogaater lineolata, a small 

 black ant, by a colony of the same species. 

 The queen, which had been taken on April 

 16th was on May 14th introduced to work- 

 ers of a nest taken on the same day. The 

 queen was alone within an artificial glass 

 formicary, and several workers were intro- 

 duced. One of these soon found the queen, 

 exhibited much excitement, but no hostility, 

 and immediately ran to her sister workers, 

 all of whom were presently clustered upon 

 the queen. As other workers were gradu- 

 ally introduced, they joined their comrades, 

 until the body of the queen (who is much 

 larcer than the workers) was nearly covered 

 with them. They appeared to be holding 

 on by their mandibles to the delicate hairs 

 upon the female's body, and continually 

 moved their antennae caressingly. This sort 

 of attention continued until the queen, es- 

 corted by workers, disappeared in one of 



the galleries. She was entirely adopted, 

 and thereafter was often seen moving freely, 

 or attended by guards, about the nest, at 

 times engaged in attending the larvae and 

 nymphs which had been introduced with 

 the workers of the strange colony. The 

 workers were fresh from their own natural 

 home, and the queen had been in an artifi- 

 cial home for a month. As among ants the 

 workers of different nests are usually hostile 

 to each other, this adoption of an alien 

 queen is an example of the strong instinct 

 which controls for preservation of the spe- 

 cies. 



Ant-Intelligence. A wonderful exhibi- 

 tion of ant-intelligence was witnessed by 

 Mr. E. W. Cox, who gives in " Nature " an 

 account of his observations. Two large 

 cockroaches having been killed, their bodies 

 were left lying on a gravel-strewed shelf in 

 a hot-house ; this shelf was four feet from 

 the floor. In about twenty minutes a swarm 

 of ants emerged from their nest, which was 

 at some distance, climbed the wall, gained 

 the shelf, and there, dividing into two par- 

 ties, proceeded to take possession of the 

 carcasses. The ants were the smallest of 

 their kind ; the body of their prey was near- 

 ly two inches long and half an inch in width. 

 In order to carry these huge carcasses to 

 their nest the ants had first to draw them 

 for a space of ten inches over rough gravel, 

 then along a smooth board for two feet, 

 then to drop them to the floor beneath, 

 then to drag them over some very rough 

 rubble for sixteen inches, and finally to 

 pass them between two slabs of wood into 

 the nest. The author recounts as follows 

 the difficulties encountered by one of the 

 parties in removing the prey : They sur- 

 rounded the corpse of the dead cockroach, 

 and, seizing it with their mandibles, moved 

 it onward a little way. It was inclined on 

 its side, and when moved the projecting 

 edges of the side hitched in the stones and 

 prevented progress. On some larger stones 

 near the spot were seen half a dozen ants 

 looking at the work, but taking no part in 

 it. When the hitch occurred, and when- 

 ever afterward any obstacle was met, these 

 " surveyors " left their stations, went to the 

 workers, and then returned to their place of 

 observation. Forthwith the laborers changed 



