ANT QUEENS 



Mountains of New Hampshire. The trout that inhabit 

 these lakes feed upon various insects that hover over 

 or sink upon the surface, and of whose habits they seem 

 to have a tolerably correct notion. But there are 

 certain annual visitations of insects which bring the 

 trout out in unusual numbers, among which is the 

 swarming of ants in marriage flight. The one described 

 occurred Monday, September 6th. The wind fell flat 

 calm at noon. Then Mr. Prime, while fishing on Echo 

 Lake, became aware of the presence of the ants. Hav- 

 ing become especially interested in the subject by a 

 conversation with the author during a casual meeting 

 in Florida the previous winter, he gave up fishing and 

 began observations. 



He rowed completely around the lake and across the 

 middle. There was no spot on the entire surface which 

 was not more or less thickly covered with winged ants. 

 He repeatedly counted the number on a square foot of 

 water. The lowest count was five, the highest nineteen. 

 He made a rough but sufficiently exact estimate of the 

 lake surface as containing two miUion square feet. 

 Taking the lowest count of ants per square foot, there 

 was therefore not less than ten million lying on the 

 water, and the actual number was probably several 

 times greater. Estimated from the average number 

 per square foot, the total would reach the enormous 

 figure of twenty-four millions! This is only the begin- 

 ning of the myriads. 



In the afternoon Mr. Prime found Profile Lake equally 

 covered with the insects. The lakes are three-fourths 

 of a mile apart. The boats of the pleasure-seekers, 

 rowing in all directions, had swept the ants into wind- 

 rows, thick masses of dead insects stretched up and 



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