344 HABITS AND INSTINCTS OF ANIMALS. CHAP. X, 



of numeration ; pursuing a straight course, from which 

 nothing can cause them to deviate : if they come to a 

 house or other building,, they storm or undermine it ; 

 if a river comes across them, though millions perish in 

 the attempt, they still endeavour to swim over it. 



(346.) The perseverance of these insects, it has been 

 affirmed, led to one of the most important political 

 revolutions that ancient history has left us : and as 

 there is nothing incredible in the anecdote, it is worth 

 recording in this place. The celebrated conqueror 

 Timour was once forced to take shelter from his enemies 

 in a ruined building, where he sat alone many hours. 

 While contemplating his hopeless condition, his atten- 

 tion was caught by an ant, endeavouring to carry a 

 grain of corn, larger than itself, up the perpendicular 

 wall. Numbering the efforts that it made before the 

 object was accomplished, he found that the grain fell 

 sixty-nine times to the ground ; but the seventieth 

 time the persevering ant succeeded. " This sight," ex- 

 claimed Timour, " gave me renewed courage ; and I 

 have never forgotten the lesson it conveyed." * As a 

 further instance of the unconquerable perseverance of 

 these animals, may be mentioned the fact of their con- 

 structing a living bridge of their own bodies. Madame 

 Merian first made known this wonderful economy of 

 ants ; and her apparently incredible statement has 

 been confirmed by the veracious Azara. He informs 

 as that the swampy tracts of Paraguay are inhabited 

 by a little black ant, whose nests resemble conical 

 hillocks of earth, about three feet high, and placed very 

 near to each other. When an inundation takes place, 

 the ants are seen collected or heaped together into a 

 circular mass, about a foot in diameter, and four fingers 

 in depth : and in this state they continue to float upon 

 the water while the inundation continues. One of the 

 sides of the mass which they form is attached to some 

 sprig of grass or piece of wood, and when the waters 

 have retired, the ants return to their habitation. When., 



* Quarterly Review, Aug. 1816. 



