CARPENTERS ^3 



inches in diameter. When these walls are fin- 

 ished, the rain and sun seem only to make 

 them harder. If a stick or straw is in their 

 way, they at once make a beam or a post of it. 

 If a post, they cover it with mortar until it is 

 thick and strong enough for their work. If a 

 beam, they build their ceiling against and 

 around it. If a room is too large, they build 

 partitions, and divide it into smaller rooms of 

 suitable size. 



Other Ants are carpenters. They often re- 

 move so much of a log of wood as to leave it a 

 mere honey-comb, pierced through and through 

 in every direction with their passages. The 

 walls between are often as thin as paper, and 

 yet are never broken through except where out' 

 passage crosses another. They can not know, 

 how to cut so near another passage by sight, 

 for all is done in the dark; they can not plan 

 or measure, as a reasoning being would do ; 

 and yet they do their work with greater deli- 

 cacy and accuracy than the man who reasons 

 and measures. For some unexplained cause, 



