VISITORS 67 



loose, crumbling sand, slanting down at a very steep 

 inclination to a depth of nearly six feet. A bend in 

 the track of a few inches would have avoided this 

 rough and dangerous spot, but this bend the ants had 

 not made; they had instead continued the track straight 

 across it. The result was to entail on themselves an 

 immense amount of quite unnecessary labour, and not 

 a little danger as well. They had always great trouble 

 and difficulty in crossing over the rough, crumbling 

 sand, and very frequently they did not succeed in 

 doing so : the loose sand gave way beneath them, 

 and they rolled down to the bottom of the incline. 

 And if they happened to be bringing home seeds, in 

 the course of the roll they invariably lost them. 

 Besides, even for ants the reascending the sandy in- 

 cline was a work of time and difficulty. But no 

 experience had any effect on the ants. To the last 

 they continued to endure the labour and risk of cross- 

 ing the loose sand sooner than alter the track and 

 avoid it. 



I have spoken already of how rapidly and how 

 strongly these foraging tracks become marked. Of 

 this, in the course of the next day or two, I had a 

 striking example. I was strolling about the garden, 

 not far from the house, when I came on a foraging 

 track which I had not previously noticed. It could 

 not, therefore, have been very long laid out. It ran 

 for part of its distance through some short but very 

 coarse, dry-looking grass ; then it crossed the carriage 

 drive. Where it ran through the grass, the grass was 

 completely destroyed. The track was as clear and 



