124 WILD LIFE UNDER THE EQUATOR. 
ful, and it is able to make aclean bite out of one’s legs. 
It is thus a very formidable animal, but fortunately its 
motions are not as quick as those of its fierce brother ; for 
if they were, I do not know what would become of a man 
in the midst of such an army. It does not march in such 
vast armies, nor does it precipitate itself upon its prey 
with such an irresistible fury. In its motions it is almost 
sluggish. They donot invade villages, or climb trees in 
pursuit of prey, and they are not so voracious as their 
fellows before mentioned. If they were, they would 
doubtless clear the country of every living thing, for 
they are much more powerful. They are, in fact, to the 
other ants what whales are to fish. If as ferocious, they 
would depopulate the country, and would themselves 
have to starve and then disappear. 
Now I have told you about the bashikouay, and feel 
that I could tell you more; and you may rely implicitly 
on what I have said, for what I have written is from 
very close observation. I wish this record of the bash- 
ikouay to stand. 
Some day civilization may reach Equatorial and Cen- 
tral Africa; then the forest will give place to open fields, 
and the bashikouay ant will disappear, for it can not 
bear an‘open country. Such is the order of nature which 
God has created, that when a race of men or beasts has 
gone it will never come back. The mastodon, and those 
gigantic animals and reptiles which once were, have 
never reappeared. 
