FORMICID^ — ANTS. 155 



each in its own way. Presently the Ant in question came 

 to an ascent, where the weight of the wood seemed for a 

 while to overpower him : he did not remain long perplexed 

 with it; for three or four others, observing his dilemma, 

 came behind and pushed it up. As soon, however, as he 

 got it on level ground, they left it to his care, and went to 

 their own work. The piece he was drawing happened to 

 be considerably thicker at one end than the other. This 

 soon threw the poor fellow into a fresh difficulty ; he un- 

 luckily dragged it between two bits of wood. After several 

 fruitless efforts, finding it would not go through, he adopted 

 the only mode that even a man in similar circumstances 

 would have taken : he came behind it, pulled it back again, 

 and turned it on its edge ; when, running again to the other 

 end, it passed through without the slightest difficulty.^ 



Franklin was much inclined to believe Ants could com- 

 municate their thoughts or desires to one another, and con- 

 firmed his opinion by several experiments. Observing that 

 when an Ant finds some sugar, it runs immediately under 

 ground to its hole, where, having stayed a little while, a 

 whole army comes out, unites and marches to the place 

 where the sugar is, and carry it off by pieces ; and that if 

 an Ant meets with a dead fly, which it cannot carry alone, 

 it immediately hastens home, and soon after some more come 

 out, creep to the fly, and carry it away ; observing this, he 

 put a little earthen pot, containing some treacle, into a 

 closet, into which a number of Ants collected, and devoured 

 the treacle very quickly. He then shook them out, and 

 tied the pot with a thin string to a nail which he had fast- 

 ened in the ceiling, so that it hung down by the string. A 

 single Ant by chance remained in the pot, and when it had 

 gorged itself upon the treacle, and wanted to get off, it was 

 under great concern to find a way, and kept running about 

 the bottom of the pot, but in vain. At last it found, after 

 many attempts, the way to the ceiling, by going along the 

 string. After it was come there, it ran to the wall, and 

 thence to the ground. It had scarcely been away half an 

 hour, when a great swarm of Ants came out, got up to the 

 ceiling, and crept along the string into the pot, and began 

 to eat again. This they continued till the treacle was all 



1 Cbamb. Misc., x. 17. 



