THE LAKE OF PITCH. 53 



ants were scurrying. Without hesitation the black giants 

 fell upon the brown warriors and tore them limb from limb, 

 with the loss of only half a leg. This is not a very serious hand- 

 icap, when one has five and a half robust limbs left! The 

 fifth big fellow dropped upon a mass of ants piled like foot- 

 ball-players upon a struggling scorpion, whose sting was 

 lashing the air in vain. The big ant started another ripple 

 upon this pool of death, which soon smoothed away, leaving 

 no recognizable trace of him. But the quartet of big-jawed 

 fellows on their rock citadel fought successfully and well. No 

 ant which crept to the top ever lived to return for help. The 

 four flew at him like wolves and bit him to death. Soon a 

 ring of hunting-ants formed around the stone, all motionless 

 except for a frantic twiddling of antennas. They were appar- 

 ently excited by the smell of the blood of their dead fellows, 

 and only rarely did one venture now and then to scale the 

 summit. When we left, two hours afterward, the army had 

 passed, and left the stone and its four doughty defenders, who 

 showed no immediate intention of leaving their fortress. 



The ground over which the hunting-ants passed was 

 absolutely bare of life, and, contrary to the rule in human 

 armies, it was among the camp-followers and foragers that 

 the most perfect discipline reigned. In the rear of the main 

 army were lines upon lines of ants laden with the spoils: 

 legs, bodies, and heads of insects and spiders, bits of scaly 

 skin of lizard or turtle, joints of centipedes and scorpions, 

 and here and there a piece of ragged but gaudy butterfly- 

 wing borne aloft like the captured standard of some opposing 

 force. 



We followed three lines of supply-carriers and found that 

 they converged on some sheltered hollow in a tree or under a 

 boulder or root. Here were massed countless hordes of ants 

 clinging together like a swarm of bees. In the centre were 

 the queen, eggs, and young of these nomadic savages, resting 



