58 A NATURALIST IN HIMALAYA 



so prevent the excavated earth from rolling backward 

 into the nest. 



All this seems intelligent. It resembles the act of 

 a rational being. But in the midst of this seeming 

 intelligence I must give an example of their utter 

 folly. 



I have mentioned that these ants so divide their 

 toil that certain workers are detailed to remain outside 

 the nest for the very important duty of carrying off 

 the pebbles and sweeping away the finer refuse so as 

 to prevent it falling back again into the nest. But I 

 discovered a nest situated on the face of a steep bank 

 three feet above the level ground. The ants were 

 engaged in excavation. Each ant carried out its little 

 load, conveyed it about six inches down the bank and 

 then laid it against the steep side of the bank, from 

 where it, of course, tumbled down to the level ground. 

 That in itself was folly, the same folly as the harvesters, 

 for the ants would have saved themselves much 

 unnecessary labour had they dropped their loads from 

 the aperture of the nest and not carried them six 

 inches down the bank. 



But what utter folly. What apparent absence of 

 the first rudiments of intelligence when I looked at 

 the mound of excavated earth three feet below on the 

 level ground. There I saw six busy workers earnestly 

 engaged at work on the mound. Each was hurrying 

 backwards and forwards picking up the pebbles and 

 carrying them away to the edge of the mound, digging 

 and uprooting the larger fragments of earth and sweep- 

 ing back the finer dust with such energy that one 

 might think it was in imminent danger of tumbling 

 back into the nest. Assuredly the suits did think so, 



