42 A NATURALIST IN HIMALAYA 



genus Tetramorium, when excavating their nest, carry 

 the loads of earth and fragments of stone down a 

 vertical slab of rock and drop them just as though 

 they were removing the particles to the mound of 

 ejected earth usually situated a short distance from 

 the nest. Had they dropped their loads at the mouth 

 of the nest they would have saved themselves a con- 

 siderable amount of misspent energy. I suspect that 

 ants have no conception of the different dimensions of 

 space, and that to transport seeds or debris up the 

 vertical or along the horizontal makes to them no 

 sensible difference, and that when the ant carries its 

 little load of earth down the perpendicular rock to the 

 correct distance from its nest and allows it to fall from 

 its jaws, it believes, if it is capable of forming any 

 mental impression at all on the matter, that it is 

 building up the usual pile of debris in the neigh- 

 bourhood of its nest, and is quite oblivous to the fact 

 that every load it so carefully lays in the correct place 

 falls downward to the ground. Men may wonder at 

 the cleverness of ants, but how often do we find that 

 their acts are the acts of folly ? 



Such are the activities of the harvesters in their 

 daily life of toil. Guided by a wonderful instinct, they 

 incessantly come and go in strict obedience to the 

 duty of the hour. They display some of the best 

 qualities of a race ; a perseverance in industry, an 

 economy in provision, a resolution in defence. They 

 have evolved an organization for the benefit of all in 

 which each submits to the common good. They live 

 in a world of socialism, but know nothing of its laws. 

 Unconscious of their actions, knowing not why they 

 toil, sufficient for the day they labour, for they 



