ANTS. 37 



time, when they foresaw it would rain, and 

 almost every night. Above fifty of those 

 little animals, especially the strongest, sur- 

 rounded that piece of slate, and drew it 

 equally in wonderful order : they removed it 

 in the morning, and nothing could be more 

 curious than to see those little animals about 

 such a work. They had made the ground 

 uneven about their nest, insomuch that the 

 slate did not lie fiat upon it, but left a free 

 passage underneath. The Ants of the other 

 two nests did not so well succeed in keeping 

 out the rain. They laid over their holes se- 

 veral pieces of old dry plaster one upon the 

 other ; but they were still troubled with the 

 rain; and the next day they took much 

 pains to repair the damage. Hence it is that 

 those insects are so frequently to be found 

 under tiles, where they settle themselves to 

 avoid the rain. Their nests are at all times 

 covered with those tiles, without any incum 

 brance, and they lay out their corn and their 

 dry earth in the sun about the tiles, as one 

 may see every day. I took care to cover the 

 two Ants' nests that were troubled with the 



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