142 NATURAL HISTORY. [cH. VII. 



furnishes no means of ascertaining the species 

 whose proceedings he describes. "The largest 

 ants which I had an opportunity of seeing are 

 formidable on account of their undermining build- 

 ings. They make burrows, with infinite labour, 

 under churches and houses, digging deep, sinuous 

 meanders in the earth, and exerting their utmost 

 strength to throw out the loosened sods. Having 

 got wings, they fly off in all directions, on the ap- 

 proach of heavy showers, with the same ill fortune 

 as Icarus, but with this difference, that he perished 

 in the sea, they on the ground, to which they fall 

 when their wings are wetted by the rain. Moreover 

 those holes in the earth by which the ants used first 

 to pass admit the rain-water, which inundates the 

 caves of the ants, and undermines the building, 

 causing the wooden beams that uphold the wall and 

 roof, first to give way, and, unless immediately sup- 

 ported, to fall along with the house. This is a com- 

 mon spectacle in Paraguay. The whole hill on 

 which St. Joachim was built was covered with ant- 

 hills, and full of subterranean cavities. Our house 

 and the one adjoining suffered much from these 

 insects. The chief altar was rendered useless for 

 many days ; for, it being rainy weather, the lurking 

 ants flew in swarms from their caves, and not being 

 able to support a long flight, fell upon the priest, the 

 altar, and sacred utensils, defiling every thing. Ten 

 outlets by which they broke from their caves being 

 closed up, next day they opened twenty more. One 

 evening there arose a violent storm, with horrible 

 thunder and lightning. A heavy shower seemed to 

 have converted our court-yard into a sloping lake, 

 the wall itself withstanding the course of the 

 waters. My companion betook himself to my apart- 

 ment. Meantime, an Indian, the churchwarden, 

 arrives, announcing that the floor of the church was 

 beginning to gape, and the wall to open and be in- 

 clined. 1 snatched up a lamp and ran to the place, 



