WITH ARMY ANTS 225 



roll far down to the bottom of the pit, and in- 

 stantly take his place in the line of living guard- 

 rails. The former constituents of the line had 

 clung to the roach segment through all its wild 

 descent, and until it came to rest at the bottom. 

 Without a moment's pause, they all attacked it 

 as if they thought it had come to life, then seized 

 it and began tugging it upward. In a fraction 

 of time, without signal or suggestion or order, 

 the hand-rails had become porters. The huge 

 piece of provender had rolled close to an ascend- 

 ing column on the opposite side of the pit, and 

 up this new trail the bearers started, pulling and 

 pushing in unison, as if they had been droghers 

 and nothing else throughout the whole of their 

 ant-existence. 



One climax of mutual assistance occurred near 

 the rim of the pit on a level with my eyes, where 

 one column passed over a surface which had 

 been undermined by heavy rain, and which actu- 

 ally overhung. I watched the overcoming of 

 this obstacle. All the ants which attempted to 

 make their way up at this point lost their foot- 

 ing and rolled headlong to the bottom. By 

 superformicine exertions a single small worker 

 at last won a path to the rim at the top. Around 



