NATURE IN MOTION. 65 



Roger of Sicily conquered that land, he carried the silk- 

 worm home with him, as his most precious booty, and 



introduced it into Sicily. From thence it was, with equal 





 care, carried further North, and finally also to this country. 



The bee loves the West so dearly, that it is not found 

 beyond the Ural Mountains, and at the beginning of this 

 century great pains had to be taken to carry it into Si- 

 beria. Unknown to America, it had no sooner reached 

 our shores, in 1675, than it spread, with amazing rapidity, 

 all over the continent. " The fly of the English," soon 

 became an abomination of the Indian, because their ap- 

 pearance in the woods was to them a sure sign of the 

 coming of the white man. Even now it leads the great 

 movement towards the West : first is heard the busy hum- 

 ming of the bee, then the squatter's weighty axe, and after 

 him the German's strange jargon. 



Ants also have their well-known migrations, and aimless 

 as they seem to be to human eye, blindly as the little 

 insects seem to wander in the dust, still they go as little 

 astray as the countless stars in heaven. The black ant 

 of the East Indies, especially, becomes even useful to man. 

 They travel in countless hordes; the fields are black as 

 far as the eye can reach, and field and forest are left 

 bare behind them. Boldly they enter human dwellings; 

 they sweep over roof and garret, cellar and kitchen; no 

 corner, no crevice, ever so small, remains unexplored, and 

 no rat or mouse, no cockroach or insect can be found 

 after their instinct has moved these not unwelcome guests 

 to continue their march. 



Very different are the migrations of the fearful locust, 



