14 PARA. Cuap. I. 
The underground abodes of this wonderful ant are known to be 
very extensive. The Rev. Hamlet Clark has related that the Saiiba of 
Rio de Janeiro, a species closely allied to ours, has excavated a tunnel 
under'the bed of the river Parahyba, at a place where it is as broad as 
the Thames at London Bridge. At the Magoary rice mills, near Pard, 
these ants once pierced the embankment of a Jarge reservoir: the great 
body of water which it contained escaped before the damage could be 
repaired. In the Botanic Gardens, at Pard, an enterprising French 
gardener tried all he could think of to extirpate the Satiba. With this 
object he made fires over some of the main entrances to their colonies, 
and blew the fumes of sulphur down the galleries by means of bellows. 
I saw the smoke issue from a great number of outlets, one of which 
was seventy yards distant from the place where the bellows were 
used. This shows how extensively the underground galleries are 
ramified. 
Besides injuring and destroying young trees by despoiling them of 
their foliage, the Sauba ant is troublesome to the inhabitants from its 
habit of plundering the stores of provisions in houses at night, for it is 
even more active by night than in the daytime. At first I was inclined 
to discredit the stories of their entering habitations and carrying off 
grain by grain the farinha or mandioca meal, the bread of the poorer 
classes of Brazil. At length, whilst residing at an Indian village on the 
Tapajos, I had ample proof of the fact. One night my servant woke 
me three or four hours before sunrise by calling out that the rats were 
robbing the farinha baskets. ‘The article at that time was scarce and 
dear. I got up, listened, and found the noise was very unlike that 
made by rats. So I took the light and went into the store-room, which 
was close to my sleeping-place. I there found a broad column of 
Satiba ants, consisting of thousands of individuals, as busy as possible, 
' passing to and fro between the door and my precious baskets. Most 
of those passing outwards were laden each with a grain of farinha, 
which was, in some cases, larger and many times heavier than the 
bodies of the carriers. Farinha consists of grains of similar size and 
appearance to the tapioca of our shops; both are products of the same 
roots, tapioca being the pure starch, and farinha the starch mixed with 
woody fibre, the latter ingredient giving it a yellowish colour. It was 
amusing to see some of the dwarfs, the smallest members of their 
family, staggering along, completely hidden under their load. The 
baskets, which were on a high table, were entirely covered with ants, 
many hundred of whom were employed in snipping the dry leaves which 
served as lining. This produced the rustling sound which had at first 
disturbed us. My servant told me that they would carry off the whole 
contents of the two baskets (about two bushels) in the course of the 
night, if they were not driven off ; so we tried to exterminate them by 
killing them with our wooden clogs. It was impossible, however, to 
prevent fresh hosts coming in as fast as we killed their companions. 
They returned the next night ; and I was then obliged to lay trains of 
gunpowder along their line, and blow them up. This, repeated many 
times, at last seemed to intimidate them, for we were free from their 
visits during the remainder of my residence at the place. What they 
