HE AT ELANDS. 117 



less than half an inch in length, with a round spot 

 at each end like beads, or the black top of long pins. 

 The length of their legs enabled them to move much 

 quicker, and they raced to and fro over the path with 

 great rapidity. The space covered by the stream 

 was a foot or more broad, all of which was crowded 

 and darkened by them, and as there was no cessation 

 in the flow of this multitude, their numbers must 

 have been immense. 



Standing a short way back, so as not to interfere 

 with their proceedings, I saw two of these insects 

 seize hold of a twig, one at each end. The twig, 

 which was dead and dry, and had dropped from a fir, 

 was not quite so long as a match, but rather thicker. 

 They lifted this stick with ease, and carried it along, 

 exactly as labourers carry a plank. A few short 

 blades of grass being in the way they ran up against 

 them, but stepped aside, and so got by. A cart 

 which had passed a long while since had forced down 

 the sand by the weight of its load, leaving a ridge 

 about three inches high, the side being perpendicular. 



Till they came to this cliff the two ants moved 

 parallel, but here one of them went first, and climbed 

 up the bank with its end of the stick, after which the 

 second followed and brought up the other. An inch 

 or two further, on the level ground, the second ant 

 left hold and went away, and the first laboured on 

 with the twig and dragged it unaided across the rest 

 of the path. Though many other ants stayed and 

 looked at the twig a moment, none of them now 

 offered assistance, as if the chief obstacle had been 

 surmounted. 



