386 Miscellaneous. 
For ourselves, we dread the chill, and have some misgivings about 
the consequences of the reaction. We find ourselves in the “singular 
position’ acknowledged by Pictet,——that is, confronted with a theory 
which, although it can really explain much, seems inadequate to the 
heavy task it so boldly assumes, but which nevertheless appears 
better fitted than any other that has been broached to explain (if it 
be possible to explain) somewhat of the manner in which organized 
beings may have arisen and succeeded each other. In this dilemma, 
we might take advantage of Mr. Darwin’s candid admission that he 
by no means expects to convince old and experienced people, whose 
minds are stocked with a multitude of facts all viewed during a long 
course of years from the old point of view. This is nearly our case. 
The Cutting Ant of Texas (Hicodoma Mexicana, Sm.). 
By S. B. Buck.ey. 
These Ants have homes under ground. In order to kill the ants, 
great excavations were made. Their extent almost exceeds belief, but 
they were seen by hundreds of the citizens. The underground rooms 
are rounded or oblong cavities connected by cylindrical passages from 
1 to 3 or 4 inches in diameter. Some chambers are 6 inches wide by 
nearly as many in height, others 12 inches. In a clayey soil these 
chambers are walled by a thin dirty-brown wax-like secretion. The 
lowest chambers are generally 10 or 12 feet deep, while the upper 
cells are rarely nearer the surface than 18 inches. I extended a tape 
line down to the bottom of one, and found it 17 feet deep ; at one of 
their largest dens, a room was found 16 feet beneath the surface, and 
several others were at near the same depth. At that place the ground 
is dug out from 12 to 16 feet deep, extending over an area having 
an average diameter of 25 feet, all of which was filled with ant-cells. 
Several large avenues (4-5 in. diam.) entered the bottom of this 
large den. On striking an avenue, some ants were seen to enter it 
followed by others, loaded with barley, all coming from that under- 
ground passage. Where they got the barley was the question, which 
was finally solved by going to a stable more than 300 feet distant, 
from which ants were seen to descend, each with his barley-grain, 
and enter a hole in the ground near the base of the stable, which was 
the only place in the vicinity where there was any barley. Another 
avenue on the other side is said to come out at the bank of a stream, 
between 200 and 300 feet distant, where are some elm-trees, from 
which the ants obtained bits of leaves, and carried them through the ~ 
said avenue into the base of the den. That they have extensive 
underground passages there is not the least doubt. A gentleman re- 
cently told me of an instance where they dug under or tunneled a 
stream to get into agarden. There was a large ant-den on the other 
side of the stream, and for a long time the garden was safe from their 
depredations ; but finally the Cutting Ants were seen there, carrying 
bits of leaves into a small hole in the ground. There was no ant-den 
in the vicinity, except the one across the creek ; and as there were no 
dirt-heaps on the surface of the ground in the garden, as there always 
