BRITISH FERTILITY 179 



the country. They were not large, scarcely larger 

 than a peck measure, but never before had I seen 

 ant-hills so populous and so lively. They were 

 living masses of ants, while the ground for yards 

 about literally rustled with their numbers. I knew 

 ant-hills at home, and had noted them carefully, 

 hills that would fill a cart-box ; but they were like 

 empty tenements compared with these, a fort gar- 

 risoned with a company instead of an army corps. 

 These hills stood in thin woods by the roadside. 

 From each of them radiated five main highways, 

 like the spokes of a wheel. These highways were 

 clearly defined to the eye, the grass and leaves 

 being slightly beaten down. Along each one of 

 them there was a double line of ants, — one line 

 going out for supplies and the other returning with 

 booty, — worms, flies, insects, a constant stream of 

 game going into the capitol. If the ants, with any 

 given worm or bug, got stuck, those passing out 

 would turn and lend a helping hand. The ground 

 between the main highways was being threaded in 

 all directions by individual ants, beating up and 

 down for game. The same was true of the surface 

 all about the terminus of the roads, several yards 

 distant. If I stood a few moments in one place, 

 the ants would begin to climb up my shoes and so 

 up my legs. Stamping them off seemed only to 

 alarm and enrage the whole camp, so that I would 

 presently be compelled to retreat. Seeing a big 

 straddling beetle, I caught him and dropped him 

 upon the nest. The ants attacked him as wolves 



