SMELL IN INSECTS. 57 



nobleman's garden discovered a closet, many yards 

 within the house, in which conserves were kept, 

 which they constantly attended, till the nest was 

 destroyed. It was remarked that they always went 

 to it by the same track, scarcely varying an inch 

 from it, though they had to pass through two apart- 

 ments ; nor could the sweeping and cleaning of the 

 rooms discomfit them, or cause them to pursue a 

 different route.* It is inferred that some in their 

 rambles must have discovered this depot of sweets, 

 and informed the next of it : we should rather say 

 they were successively led thither by smell, or at least 

 that the road was pointed out not so much by gesti- 

 cular signs as by the smell of the conserves left on 

 the track of the first who had been at the pots. 



Dr Franklin made an observation upon ants 

 for the purpose of ascertaining their capability of 

 imparting intelligence. He put a little earthen 

 pot, containing treacle, into a closet, and soon found 

 a number of ants feasting upon it ; upon which he 

 shook them out, and suspended the pot by a string 

 from the cemng of the room. By accident there re- 

 mained in the pot a single ant, which, after gorging 

 itself, found with some difficulty the way to the 

 ceiling along the string. It had scarcely been gone 

 half an hour, when a swarm of ants issued forth, got 

 up to the ceiling, and crept along the string to the 

 pot, and a regular march and counter-march of 

 foragers was soon established between the nest and 

 the pot. This we are disposed to explain as we 

 have done the facts mentioned by Bradley — an expla- 

 nation rendered probable by some experiments which 

 we have tried. 



We laid a bruised raisin, dipped in moist sugar, 

 upon a grass-plot, where a few ants of various spe- 

 cies were observed straggling about ; and it was not 



' Account of the Works of Nature. 



