PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 101 



hours, desirous of diverting his mind from his hopeless 

 condition, he fixed his observation upon an ant that was 

 carrying a grain of corn (probably a pupa) larger than 

 itself up a high wall. Numbering the efforts that it 

 made to accomplish this object, he found that the grain 

 fell sixty-nine times to the ground, but the seventieth 

 time it reached the top of the wall. "This sight (said 

 Timour) gave me courage at the moment ; and I have 

 never forgotten the lesson it conveyed a ." 



Madame Merian, in her Surinam Insects, speaking of 

 the large-headed ant (CEcodoma cephalotes], affirms that, 

 if they wish to emigrate, they will construct a living 

 bridge in this manner : One individual first fixes itself 

 to a piece of wood by means of its jaws, and remains sta- 

 tionary ; with this a second connects itself; a third takes 

 hold of the second, and a fourth of the third, and so on, 

 till a long connected line is formed fastened at one ex- 

 tremity, which floats exposed to the wind, till the other 

 end is blown over so as to fix itself to the opposite side 

 of the stream, when the rest of the colony pass over upon 

 it, as a bridge 5 . This is the process, as far as I can 

 collect it from her imperfect account : as she is not 

 always very correct in her statements, I regarded this as 

 altogether fabulous, till I met with the following history 

 of a similar proceeding in De Azara, which induces me 

 to give more credit to it. 



He tells us, that in low districts in South America, 

 that are exposed to inundations, conical hills of earth 

 may be observed, about three feet high, and very near 



a Related in the Quarterly Review for August 1816, p. 259. 

 h Insect. Surinam, p. 18. In her plate the ants are represented so 

 connected. 



