NATURE'S CRAFTSMEN 



A nest upon the summit of a ridge, made in the 

 friable red sandstone that there prevails, was chosen 

 for thorough exploration. Its uncovering kept two 

 men for half a week at work with chisel and hammer, 

 including the time taken in measurements, sketches, 

 and plaster casts. The nest-interior sloped towards the 

 base of the hill, and occupied a space, in round numbers, 

 eight feet long, three feet high, and a foot and a half 

 wide. In other words, there were thirty-six cubic feet 

 of rock fairly honeycombed by the series of galleries 

 and storied chambers. All this was not only dug away, 

 but was carried through the interlacing galleries, up the 

 central gangway, and dumped aroimd the gate. It is 

 a busy underground scene that one's fancy calls up, not 

 wholly free from that marvel which in primitive ages 

 simple-minded men were wont to couple with mining- 

 works and miners, and evoke therefor the aid of gnomes 

 and the "swart faery of the mine." 



However, it was not the wonders of the architecture 

 that gave chief zest to this search. As the chisel, deft- 

 ly wielded, uncovers this large room, a rare scene is in 

 view. The vaulted roof is beaded with rich, amber- 

 colored spheres, from beneath which protrude the yellow 

 trunks and legs of living insects! These are the honey- 

 bearers, whose rotund abdomens, with their stores of 

 sweets, have made their species famous among the emmet 

 tribes. As the light breaks in — the first these cavern- 

 ous halls have ever known — a faint wave of movement 

 stirs throughout the compact group of "linked sweet- 

 ness." The shock of the income sunshine, and the con- 

 fusion that has seized and scattered so many of their 

 fellows, as their habitation crumbles about them, do 

 not cause them to loose their hold upon their perch. 



