14 The Ant's Highway. 



ining? "Was it not because an old and acquired habit 

 was suddenly uprooted? Surely infallible instinct 

 could have carried them across the space of three 

 inches without any trouble of investigation. 



In a few seconds one of the exploring parties, 

 making a curve, hit the other end of the path, and 

 the news was quickly spread, for the rest followed 

 almost immediately. Placing a small pebble across 

 the track on another occasion caused almost the same 

 amount of interference with the traffic. Near the hole 

 into which the ants plunged under the border, and on 

 the edge of the bank, so to say, the path they had 

 worn was not visible the ground was hard and did 

 not take impression ; and there, losing the guidance 

 of the groove, they often made mistakes. Instead of 

 hitting the right hole, many of them missed it and 

 entered other holes left by boring worms, and after 

 a short time reappeared to search again, till, finding 

 the cavern, they hastily plunged into it. This was 

 particularly the case when a solitary insect came 

 along. Therefore it would seem that the ant works 

 its way tentatively, and, observing where it fails, tries 

 another place and succeeds. 



