:::::::::*; NATURE NEAR CAMP vfe:.":::-: 



with orange-peel or some bit of food. During the first 

 few days the majority of the ants transjDorted roughly 

 circular pieces of leaves, but news soon spread of the 

 more precious treasures, and only a day or two was 

 needed for a well-marked path to be worn in the direc- 

 tion of each nest. There were two very distinct classes 

 or " persons " among the ants, each hard and thorny- 

 armoured. The workers, or those which carried the 

 burdens, were small, the big-jawed soldiers being much 

 larger. The latter loafed along, one to every twenty or 

 so of the smaller kind, doing nothing in particular ex- 

 cept occasionally brandishing their formidable mand- 

 ibles. In one place an ant-trail led over an arching 

 branch which lay upon the ground. The removal of 

 this caused the greatest consternation. Burdens were 

 dropped, soldiers collected rapidly at the broken ends 

 of the trail and advanced slowly, waving their pincer- 

 like weapons as they went. In three minutes the fore- 

 most members of each division met, twiddled antennse, 

 and the line of travel Avas once more open. The work- 

 ers hastened back, searched for their discarded loads, 

 and hurried along- as before. I noticed that for ten or 

 fifteen minutes the soldiers were more numerous at the 

 point of the accident than elsewhere. 



Some of the diminutive workers carried compar- 

 atively immense burdens, a piece of orange-pith three 

 or four times as large as the entire bodv. Occasion- 

 ally one would come along staggering under a tall, 



*4 153 #* ■• 



