156 -RELATION BETWEEN ANTS: 
finding her route? how many times doeg 
she not stop in going to, or returning 
from this land of promise? She endea- 
vours to discover the places that lay in 
her former route ; she is seen to halt al- 
most every instant, until she happens 
to meet with some visible or palpable 
clue, as the extremity of a road, or the 
stantly revisited until the treacle was consumed. 
The Doctor was therefore of opinion, that ants 
were enabled to communicate their ideas to each 
other.— Ina memoir, published im the Transactions 
of the French Academy, an account is given of a 
solitary ant that was taken from its nest, and thrown 
on a heap of corn: it was observed, after surveying 
this treasure, to hasten immediately back to its 
residence, where it doubtless communicated to its 
associates this intelligence; for the granary was very 
soon filled with visitors, and the corn taken away. 
The fallacy of the statement respecting ants laying 
up a store of provision for their winter consump- 
tion, particularly corn, is now very generally ad- 
mitted; it has been ascertained that ants, (at least 
those of this country;) during that season, lie in a 
state of torpor, and therefore require no food, 
Gould, who published a memoir on these insects in 
1747, pointed out this error ; and since his time, it 
has been fully confirmed by the most experienced 
entomologists. — T. 
