Miscellaneous. 525 



in most places completely ground down to a plane, as perfectly as it 

 could have been by a stone-cutter by polishing.' ' In many places, 

 grooves and scratches in straight and parallel lines are distinctly vi- 

 sible, evidently formed by the progress of some heavy mass, pro- 

 pelled by a regular and uniform motion. The grooves are in width 

 from lines scarcely visible to those three-fourths of an inch wide, 

 and from one-fortieth to one-eighth of an inch deep, traversing the 

 quarry from between north 1 9°, to north 33° west, to the opposite 

 points in lines exactly straight, and in fascicles of sometimes ten in 

 number, exactly parallel : clearly in compact limestone, without 

 seam or fault of any kind, and in a surface ground down to a perfect 

 plane.' To illustrate these appearances, a portion of the stone was 

 taken, and by the process of ' medal ruling,' a perfect engraving was 

 made by the tracer, and a picture is given in the report (p. 230) of 

 great distinctness. The blue limestone abounds with the Stropho- 

 mena of Raf., while the cliff has few of them. The shell of the fos- 

 sils is often preserved in the blue, while in the cliff limestone only 

 the cast is found." — Sillimans American Journal, Jan. 1841. 



To the Editors of the Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 

 " What can we reason but from what we know ?" — Pope. 



Differences of Neuters in Ants. — In the account of the Proceedings 

 of the Entomological Society of the 1st of June, 1840, published in the 

 last Number of this Journal, it is said, — " Mr. Shuckard also stated 

 his opinion, that there was never more than one kind of Neuter 

 among the Ants." As this might be understood to imply that I am 

 ignorant of what has been stated by Huber, Lund, and others, of 

 there being different classes of Neuters — viz. Soldiers and Workers — 

 I request to state, that my observation was the result of the careful 

 study of an extensive collection of the Social Heterogyna, in which, 

 with but one exception, and that in a rare genus, I have detected 

 only one description of neuters, for mere differences of size are of no 

 importance, knowing as we do how much most insects vary in this 

 respect. To this I alluded at the time. Where a functional dif- 

 ference exists, we are prepared, from analogy, to expect correspond- 

 ing structural differences ; but not finding these, I apprehend we may 

 more correctly attribute what has been observed either to an en- 

 larged instinct peculiar to certain genera of this tribe of insects, ca- 

 pable of being alternately exercised by all their individuals under 

 certain influences, and not restricted to a certain class, or perhaps 

 to the preoccupied imagination of the observers themselves. It has 

 been said, that the heads of the soldiers are proportionally larger : 

 if such be the case, it is remarkable that describers have not given 

 the descriptions of two kinds of neuters, especially in the European 

 genus Atta. The respective types of the two distinct forms of a 

 neuter which I mentioned above as the only exception to the gene- 

 rality of my observation, are the Formica {Eciton) hamata, Latr., and 

 curvidentata, Latr. 



Under the date of October 5th likewise, in the same Number of 

 this Journal, it is stated that Mr. Smith exhibited the two distinct 

 kinds of neuters of Formica sanguinea, but it is not said whether any 



