CH. VII.] ANTS. 141 



geometrically precise labour of bees. Indeed they 

 seem to act so completely according to the exi- 

 gencies of each case, that the moving power which 

 impels and guides their operations approaches so 

 closely to human reason, that to establish a distinc- 

 tion appears extremely difficult. 



The strength and perseverance of ants are per- 

 fectly wonderful. Kirby states, that he once saw 

 two or three horse-ants hauling along a young snake 

 not dead, which was of the thickness of a goose- 

 quill. St. Pierre relates, that he saw a number of 

 ants carrying off a Patagonian centipede : they had 

 seized it by all its legs, and bore it along as work- 

 men do a large piece of timber. Nothing can divert 

 them from any purpose which they have undertaken 

 to execute. In warm climates they may be fre- 

 quently seen marching in columns which exceed all 

 power of enumeration ; always pursuing a straight 

 course, from which nothing can cause them to 

 deviate : if they come to a house or other building, 

 they storm or undermine it ; if a river cross their 

 path, they will endeavour to swim over it, though 

 millions perish in the attempt. 



It is related of the celebrated conqueror Timour, 

 that being once forced to take shelter from his ene- 

 mies in a ruined building, he sat alone many hours : 

 desirous of diverting his mind from his hopeless 

 condition, he fixed his observation upon an ant which 

 was carrying a grain of corn (probably a pupa) 

 larger than itself, up a high wall. Numbering the 

 efforts that it made to accomplish this object, he 

 found that the grain fell sixty-nine times to the 

 ground ; but the seventieth time it reached the top 

 of the wall. " This sight," said Timour, " gave me 

 courage at the moment, and I have never forgotten 

 the lesson it conveyed." 



The Jesuit Dobrizhofler, in his History of the 

 Abipones, gives the folio wing very singular account 

 of the ravages of ants known in Paraguay. He 



