56 A NATURALIST IN HIMALAYA 



those too heavy for its strengtli. It was never content 

 to take the first pebble that offered, but was continually 

 selecting as though choice was an important factor in 

 the perfection of its work. Back again to the platform 

 it struggled with the chosen pebble ; up the slippery 

 cone it toiled, now pushing, now dragging its heavy 

 burden. Ever stumbling, often slipping down the 

 crumbling slope, it laboured on in its persistent toil. 

 So great was its energy and determined its efforts that 

 it seemed to recognize the importance of its task. 

 Hour after hour it laboured on. Repeatedly it re- 

 turned for pebble after pebble. No other ant ever 

 relieved it ; none ever shared its monotonous toil. 

 All alone it struggled to build a platform of pebbles to 

 save its fellow-creatures from misfortune. 



The platform consisted of a layer of stones spread 

 over the apex of the cone outside the entrance of the 

 nest. The worker did not cast down its burdens 

 haphazard, but selected a suitable place for the deposit 

 of each load, and often carried its pebble all round 

 the mouth of the nest before it was satisfied in its 

 choice. Thouorh the other workers took no active 

 part in fetching pebbles or building up the platform, 

 yet they rendered a milder form of assistance, for as 

 they emerged from the nest in their work of excava- 

 tion they occasionally dropped a few fragments of 

 earth between the pebbles of the platform, and this 

 served to cement the mass. 



I thought I would help the solitary and laborious 

 worker in its strenuous task, so I added a few pebbles 

 to the platform, but the other ants would have none 

 of this interference, and immediately seized my pebbles 

 in their jaws and hurled them down the slope. I think 



