A GUILD OF CARPENTER ANTS 



engineer connected with the raihoad, stated that he 

 knew of at least one case of a freight-train wreck caused 

 by the break-down of a trestle weakened by carpenter 

 ants. Recent inquiry at the office of the president of 

 the road developed the fact that present-day engineers 

 have so completely emerged from the period of lumber 

 bridges that the only injuries of the sort known to them 

 are those of the teredo, or ship-worm, whose legions 

 make such destructive inroads upon the wooden piles 

 used in sea-shore structures. But that is a matter for 

 the student of mollusks, not' of insects. 



That our Bellwood grist-mill does not stand alone as 

 an example of pernicious industry appeared in the 

 vicinage of the author's city home. The late Judge 

 Allison, an eminent jurist of Philadelphia, once sent me 

 a section of an ant-eaten log, and later called to relate 

 its history. It was a part of the beam which had sup- 

 ported the roof of the spacious porch of his suburban 

 house. Persistent leakage in the roof led him to send 

 for a carpenter, who found the cause in a large colony 

 of Camponotida3 that had nested in the beam, and fairly 

 riddled it for a space of several feet. The judge had 

 often observed, while sitting on his porch in the cool of 

 the day, ants ascending and descending the pillars. 



He had mused upon their curious manners and moral- 

 ized upon their industry and other fine qualities as 

 described by his insect-loving neighbor. But here was 

 a new phase of the subject, to him at least! He felt 

 some scruples of conscience at dislodging such quiet 

 tenants and breaking up the home they had so ingen- 

 iously and toilfully made. For although it was a case 

 of manifest trespass, and the judgment of delenda est 

 was doubtless right, yet he could not forget the saying, 



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