AMONG THE NUT^. 117 



minute parallel earthworks drawn across their highway. 

 Those that came out of the nest on arriving at the little 

 ridge on their side immediately stopped, worked their 

 antennae in astonishment, then went up to the top of it, 

 and seemed to try to look round. After a moment they 

 ran back and touched those that were coming on to 

 communicate the intelligence. Every ant that came did 

 exactly the same thing ; not one of them passed the 

 little ridge, but all returned. By-and-by the head of the 

 column began to spread out and search right and left 

 for the lost track. They scouted this way and they 

 scouted that, they turned and doubled and went through 

 every possible evolution, hundreds of them, sometimes 

 a score at once, yet not one of them attempted to go 

 straight forward, which would have brought them into 

 their old path. It was scarcely thrice the length of an 

 ant's body to where their path began again ; they could 

 not see or scent, or in any way find out what was so 

 short a distance in front of them. The most extraor- 

 dinary thing was that not one ventured to explore straight 

 forward ; it was as if their world came to an end at that 

 little ridge, and they were afraid to step into chaos. 

 The same actions were going on behind the other ridge 

 of sand just opposite, an inch away. There the column 

 of ants that had been out foraging was met with a like 

 difficulty, and could not find their way. There, too, hun- 

 dreds of ants were exploring right and left in every direc- 

 tion except straight forward, in a perfect buzz of excite- 

 ment. Once or twice an ant from either party happened 

 to mount on the parallel ridges at the same time, and 

 if they had strained forward and stretched out their 

 antennae they could have almost touched each other. 

 Yet they seemed quite unconscious of each other's pre- 

 sence. Unless in a well-worn groove a single ant appears 



