182 THE UNIVERSE. 



Sometimes, however, he resists the invaders, declares a war 

 of extermination against them, and burns their dwellings by 

 the aid of certain combustible materials. Sometimes artil- 

 lery charged with grape-shot is employed to overthrow the 

 lofty fortresses of these ants, and scatter both the ruins 

 and the architects. 



Thus is man obliged to attack an insect with cannon. 



Sometimes he resorts to the mine, a step he is compelled 

 to take against certain winged ants in the tropical countries, 

 which sink their nests as much as twenty-five feet in the 

 ground; and these are so compact that they can only be 

 torn up by the aid of powder, and by overturning all the 

 earth round about them. Ch. Miiller relates that in Brazil 

 large districts on the banks of the Parana have been in this 

 way transformed almost into deserts. 



CHAPTER VII. 



GRAVE-DIGGERS AND MINERS. 



DESPITE that supremacy over all creation which the pride 

 of man attributes to himself, a feeble insect often surpasses 

 him in energy, and in certain cases in intelligence. Leave 

 one of our race entirely to the resources of his own organs, 

 and bid him bury an elephant or rhinoceros; he would 

 spend the best part of his life in trying. His nails would 

 be worn out before the pit for the colossus was finished, and 

 all his strength would be exhausted to no purpose in order 

 to place it there and cover it with earth. 



