FAZENDA LIFE. 105 



beneath. The interior of all of them swarmed with the 

 different kinds of inhabitants ; the little white ones, the 

 larger black ones with brown heads and powerful forceps, 

 and in each were found one or two very large swollen 

 white ones, quite different in dimensions and appearance 

 from the rest, probably the queens. With the assistance 

 of the negroes, Mr. Agassiz made, for future examination, 

 a large collection of all the different kinds of individuals 

 thus living together in various numeric proportions, and 

 he would gladly have carried away one of the nests, but 

 they are too cumbersome for transportation. The Cupim 

 nests are very different from the dwellings of the Sauba 

 ants, which have large external openings. The latter 

 make houses by excavating, and sometimes undermine a 

 hill so extensively, with their long galleries, that when 

 a fire is lighted at one of the entrances to exterminate 



o 



them, the smoke issues at numerous openings, distant per- 

 haps a quarter of a mile from each other, showing in how 

 many directions they have tunnelled out the hill, and 

 that their winding passages communicate with each other 

 throughout. So many travellers have given accounts of 

 these ant-houses, and of the activity of their inhabitants 

 in stripping and carrying off the leaves of trees to deposit 

 them in their habitations, that it hardly seems worth while 

 to repeat the story. Yet no one can see without aston- 

 ishment one of these ant-armies travelling along the road 

 they have worn so neatly for themselves, those who are 

 coming from the trees looking like a green procession, al- 

 most hidden by the fragments of leaves they carry on their 

 backs, while the returning troops, who have already de 

 posited their burden, are hurrying back for more. There 

 seems to be another set of individuals running to and fro, 



5* 



