FOKESl^ TREES. 167 



out. The plan to our eyes seems all confusion. Doubtless if we could 

 view the architecture with Ants' eyes, we should perceive — 



" Disorder, order unperceived Ijy thee ; 

 All chance, direction which thou canst not see." 



These long galleries and cells are the work of a large black x\nt. These 

 ants are somewhat formidable-looking insects, of a reddish-black colour, 

 about half an inch in length. The female, or winged insect, is the 

 largest ; then the male ; the workers are of smaller size. There are 

 myriads of these last in that old Cedar, and in those prostrate trunks 

 that lean in every direction above it. These black Ants are among the 

 most active of our forest scavengers ; ever busy, boring, sawing, 

 pounding and tearing ; manufacturing a walled city out of the fragments 

 of those fallen trees ; silently and secretly do they carry on their labours, 

 like the sappers and miners of a besieged city. 



A troublesome colony of black Ants is sometimes introduced into 

 the log-house of the backwoods settler in the foundation logs, which are 

 very frequently made of Cedar, being more durable than any of the hard- 

 wood timbers. These creatures soon find out the housewife's stores of 

 maple-sugar, and molasses, and preserves, and carry off quantities, to 

 say nothing of what they devour individually ; and very difficult it is to 

 dislodge and destroy these depredators. They seem to be omnivorous, 

 nothing eatable coming amiss to them. I have seen them stop their 

 homeward march to devour crumbs, dead flies, and even make a meal 

 off the body of their comrades. I remember being greatly molested by 

 a colony of black Ants, when living in a log-house, our first residence in 

 the backwoods. They formed two regular bands, one going the other 

 coming to my store closet. I killed them by hundreds ; but the black 

 brigands never seemed to diminish, till at last I found out their strong- 

 hold, which was a large Cedar post to which my garden gate was hung. 

 This was perforated all through by the labours of these insects, and 

 being close to the walls of the house, they made their entry between the 

 logs ; boiling water, applied in sufficient quantities, at last ridded the 

 house of the nuisance. 



The timber of the White Cedar is very light and durable, and is valued 

 above all other for the sills of log buildings, for rafters and posts and rails. 

 The Cedar Swamp, which in the early days of the colony was looked 

 upon by the settler as a useless waste ot land and a loss, has now become 

 a valuable possession— in many situations a profitable one. In some 

 places a thousand Cedar rails will realize from twenty to thirty dollars, 

 and even more than that sum in parts of the country where rail and 

 fencing timber is scarce ; which owing to the improvidence of many of 



