386 Miscellaneous, 



For ourselves, we dread the chill, and have some misgivings about 

 the consequences of the reaction. We find ourselves in the " singular 

 position " acknowledged by Pictet, — that is, confronted with a theory 

 which, although it can really explain much, seems inadequate to the 

 heavy task it so boldly assumes, but which nevertheless appears 

 better fitted than any other that has been broached to explain (if it 

 be possible to explain) somewhat of the manner in which organized 

 beings may have arisen and succeeded each other. Tn this dilemma, 

 we might take advantage of Mr. Darwin's candid admission that he 

 by no means expects to convince old and experienced people, whose 

 minds are stocked with a multitude of facts all viewed during a long 

 course of years from the old point of view. This is nearly our case. 



The Cutting Ant of Texas ((Ecodoma Mexicana, Sm.). 

 By S. B. Buckley. 



These Ants have homes under ground. In order to kill the ants, 

 great excavations were made. Their extent almost exceeds belief, but 

 they were seen by hundreds of the citizens. The underground rooms 

 are rounded or oblong cavities connected by cylindrical passages from 

 1 to 3 or 4 inches in diameter. Some chambers are 6 inches wide by 

 nearly as many in height, others 12 inches. In a clayey soil these 

 chambers are walled by a thin dirty-brown wax-like secretion. The 

 lowest chambers are generally 10 or 12 feet deep, while the upper 

 cells are rarely nearer the surface than 18 inches. I extended a tape 

 line down to the bottom of one, and found it 1 7 feet deep ; at one of 

 their largest dens, a room was found 1 6 feet beneath the surface, and 

 several others were at near the same depth. At that place the ground 

 is dug out from 12 to 16 feet deep, extending over an area having 

 an average diameter of 25 feet, all of which was filled with ant-cells. 

 Several large avenues (4-5 in. diam.) entered the bottom of this 

 large den. On striking an avenue, some ants were seen to enter it 

 followed by others, loaded with barley, all coming from that under- 

 ground passage. Where they got the barley was the question, which 

 was finally solved by going to a stable more than 300 feet distant, 

 from which ants were seen to descend, each with his barley -grain, 

 and enter a hole in the ground near the base of the stable, which was 

 the only place in the vicinity where there was any barley. Another 

 avenue on the other side is said to come out at the bank of a stream, 

 between 200 and 300 feet distant, where are some elm-trees, from 

 which the ants obtained bits of leaves, and carried them through the 

 said avenue into the base of the den. That they have extensive 

 underground passages there is not the least doubt. A gentleman re- 

 cently told me of an instance where they dug under or tunneled a 

 stream to get into a garden. There was a large ant-den on the other 

 side of the stream, and for a long time the garden was safe from their 

 depredations ; but finally the Cutting Ants were seen there, carrying 

 bits of leaves into a small hole in the ground. There was no ant-den 

 in the vicinity, except the one across the creek ; and as there were no 

 dirt-heaps on the surface of the ground in the garden, as there always 



