BRITISH FERTILITY 181 



size, and to nerve itself to the work; as fast as the 

 ants reached him in any number he ingulfed them; 

 he poured the vials of his glutinous wrath upon 

 them till he had formed quite a rampart of cemented 

 and helpless ants about him; fresh ones constantly 

 coming up laid hold of the barricade with their 

 jaws, and were often hung that way. I lingered 

 half an hour or more to see the issue, but was 

 finally compelled to come away before the closing 

 scene. I presume the ants finally triumphed. The 

 snail had nearly exhausted its ammunition; each 

 new broadside took more and more time and was 

 less and less effective ; while the ants had unlimited 

 resources, and could make bridges of their sunken 

 armies. But how they finally freed themselves and 

 their mound of that viscid, sloughing monster I 

 should be glad to know. 



But it was not these incidents that impressed me 

 so much as the numbers and the animation of the 

 ants, and their raiding, buccaneering propensities. 

 When I came to London, I could not help thinking 

 of the ant-hill I had seen in the North. This, I 

 said, is the biggest ant-hill yet. See the great 

 steam highways, leading to all points of the com- 

 pass; see the myriads swarming, jostling each other 

 in the streets, and overflowing all the surrounding 

 country. See the underground tunnels and galler- 

 ies and the overground viaducts; see the activity 

 and the supplies, the whole earth the hunting- 

 ground of these insects and rustling with their mul- 

 titudinous stir. One may be pardoned, in the 



