The Life of the Bee 



always fly together, and that there will 

 often be an interval of several seconds be- 

 tween the different arrivals. As regards 

 these communications, therefore, *we must 

 ask ourselves the question that Sir John 

 Lubbock has solved as far as the ants are 

 concerned. 



Do the comrades who flock to the treas- 

 ure only follow the bee that first made the 

 discovery, or have they been sent on by 

 her, and do they find it through following 

 her indications, her description of the 

 place where it lies ? Between these two 

 hypotheses, that refer directly to the extent 

 and working of the bee's intellect, there is 

 obviously an enormous difference. The 

 English savant has succeeded, by means 

 of an elaborate and ingenious arrangement 

 of gangways, corridors, moats full of 

 water, and flying bridges, in establishing 

 that the ants in such cases do no more 

 than follow in the track of the pioneering 

 168 



