22^ JUNGLE PEACE 



namic stream of life controlled by some single, 

 outside mind. 



Here, then, were scores of ants scrambling up 

 the steep uneven sides, over ground which they 

 had never explored, with unknown obstacles 

 confronting them at every step. To the eye 

 they were ants of assorted sizes, but as they 

 advanced, numbers fell out here and there and 

 remained behind. This mob consisted of poten- 

 tial corduroy, rope-bridges, props, hand-rails, 

 lattices, screens, fillers, stiles, ladders, and other 

 unnamable adjuncts to the successful scaling 

 of these apparently impregnable cliffs. If a 

 stratum of hard sand appeared, on which no 

 impression could be made, a line of ants strung 

 themselves out, each elaborately fixing himself 

 fast by means of jaws and feet. From that 

 moment his feverish activity left him: he became 

 a fixture, a single unit of a swaying bridge over 

 a chasm; a beam, an organic plank, over which 

 his fellows tramped by hundreds, some em.pty, 

 some heavily laden. If a sudden ascent had to 

 be made, one ant joined himself to others to 

 form a hanging ladder, up which the columns 

 climbed, partly braced against the sandy wall. 



At imcertain, unguarded turns a huge soldier 



