130 THE ORIGIN OF HUMAN REASON. 



The tales told of ants are most remarkable for the 

 mode in which they are told. Certain mining ants do 

 not lose time by carrying the earth they excavate to 

 the surface,* " but pass the pellets to those above ; and 

 the ants on the surface, when they receive the pellets, 

 carry them — with an appearance of forethought which 

 quite staggered Mr. Bates — only just far enough to 

 insure that they shall not roll back again into the shaft, 

 and, after depositing them, immediately hurry back for 

 more." Why Mr. Bates should have been " staggered " 

 by so very simple a phenomenon, we are quite at a loss 

 to conceive. 



With respect to certain other ants, Mr. Belt is quoted 

 as saying, f " I noticed a sort of assembly of about a 

 dozen individuals that appeared in consultation. Sud- 

 denly one ant left the conclave^ and ran with great speed 

 up the perpendicular face of the cutting without 

 stopping." Shortly, "information was communicated 

 to the ants below, and a dense column rushed up in 

 search of prey." What possible right could Mr. Belt 

 have to call a dozen ants in proximity "a sort of 

 assembly" or "a conclave," or to declare that they 

 "appeared in consultation"? If persons who describe 

 such things would simply content themselves with 

 describing that they actually see, great would be the 

 gain. Even Mr. Bates speaks of "news of a disturb- 

 ance" being "quickly communicated," as if he was 

 stating an observed fact instead of drawing an un- 

 certain inference. Again, we have a statement as 

 follows concerning ants induced by terror to change 

 * p. 92. t The italics are ours. 



