THE 



EVOLUTIONIST AT LARGE. 



I. 



MICROSCOPIC BRAINS. 



SITTING on this little rounded boss of gneiss 

 beside the path which cuts obliquely through 

 the meadow, I am engaged in watching a 

 brigade of ants out on foraging duty, and 

 intent on securing for the nest three whole 

 segments of a deceased earthworm. They 

 look for all the world like those busy com- 

 panies one sees in the Egyptian wall-paintings, 

 dragging home a huge granite colossus by 

 sheer force of bone and sinew. Every muscle 

 in their tiny bodies is strained to the utmost 

 as they prise themselves laboriously against 





B 2 



