Motes on hiv.^lc and Other Wild Life. 107 



four months, their nature-built fortress being tlie while borne 

 (;n the Admiralty books as H.M.S. Diamond Rock. h'rom this 

 commanding" position they harassed the French fleet until ist 

 June, 1805, when, through want of powder, they were compelled 

 to surrender to a h'rench squadron of two seventy-fours, a 

 frigate, a corvette, a schooner and eleven gunboats, upon whom 

 they inflicted severe loss, only themselves losing two men 

 killed and one wounded. 



South America may be regarded as the homeland of ant 

 life. There are microscopic ants, small ants, medium-sized 

 ants, and ants so large that they may easily be mistaken for 

 big cockroaches. There are also stupid ants and wise ones, as 

 well as ants that possess not only all the human senses but other 

 perceptions that we wot not of. 



Here is one of our numerous experiences of these 

 mysterious creatures. One evening E. remarked that she had 

 seen few insects about the hotel — some flies, fewer cockroaches, 

 and, most remarkable of all, hardly any of the ant races. I 

 replied that it was very likely due to the excessively dry season. 

 'I'hus did v.'e both attract the evil eye and were " overlooked. ' 

 Half an hour afterwards we were astonished by a solid stream 

 of scavenger ants stretching from a waste-paper basket (into 

 which I had most improperly thrown a small box containing the 

 remains of some Christmas bon-bons) to the baseboard of the 

 room. This mass of little red ants was an inch wide, and the 

 column made straight across the room, ten feet away, crossing 

 over but never going around any of the obstructions in their 

 path. Every foot or so of this insect army was ofificered and 

 controlled by larger and quite different coloured ants, who ran 

 hither and thither, in striking contrast to the ant mass that was 

 headed always in the same direction — towards the crack in the 

 baseboard — behind which they disappeared. After watching 

 this phenomenon, quite common in tropical countries and 

 occasionally seen in temperate localities, E. said " Why, they 

 seem to be going all one way and to be coming from the 

 basket." Investigation proved that an incoming column could 

 be traced back from the basket, out into the hall, along and 

 past two fairly large adjoining apartments, into and across a 

 third room, to emerge from its baseboard at least 100 feet from 

 the exit in my room. Thus we had to deal with a solid column 



