ANT EXPEDITIONS TO CAPTURE SLAVES. 357 



the surface appeared extremely agitated, as if they 

 had foreseen the attack with which they were 

 threatened. The combatants fought body to body ; 

 but the strangers threw themselves into a gallery 

 with so much impetuosity that the other could not 

 restrain them. This courageous incursion did not 

 succeed ; they all perished, not, however, with- 

 out making great havoc; for, when I saw the le- 

 gionaries of the natural ant-hill resume their expedi- 

 tions, I found their army reduced to one half its 

 original number : the formicary had not suffered so 

 great a diminution*.'* 



* Huber on Ants, p, 323. 



