164 EDGE OF THE JUNGLE 



for well over two hundred yards. Taking little 

 Third-of-an-inch for a type (although he would 

 rank as a rather large Atta), and comparing 

 him with a six-foot man, we reckon this trail, 

 ant-ratio, as a full twenty-five miles. Belt re- 

 cords a leaf-cutter's trail half a mile long, which 

 would mean that every ant that went out, cut 

 his tiny bit of leaf, and returned, would traverse 

 a distance of a hundred and sixteen miles. This 

 was an extreme; but our Atta may take it for 

 granted, speaking antly, that once on the home 

 trail, he has, at the least, four or five miles ahead 

 of him. 



The Atta roads are clean swept, as straight 

 as possible, and very conspicuous in the jungle. 

 The chief high-roads leading from very large 

 nests are a good foot across, and the white sand 

 of their beds is visible a long distance away. I 

 once knew a family of opossums living in a stump 

 in the center of a dense thicket. When they left 

 at evening, they always climbed along as far as 

 an Atta trail, dropped down to it, and followed 

 it for twenty or thirty yards. During the rains 

 I have occasionally found tracks of agoutis and 

 deer in these roads. So it would be very possi- 

 ble for the Attas to lay the foundation for an 



