HORTICULTURISTS 221 



raise more workers. But the Saiibas laboriously 

 collect green leaves which are not food, and care- 

 fully prepare them in order that they may support 

 a crop that may be used as food by them. This is 

 something very different, and is worthy of being 

 pondered. 



In addition to their skill as cultivators, the 

 Saiibas are notable miners. We omitted them 

 from mention in the chapter devoted to the mining 

 industry because we knew they must be treated 

 here. On this point, therefore, we will be content 

 now with quoting a paragraph from Bates : 



" The underground abodes of this wonderful 

 ant are known to be very extensive. The Rev. 

 Hamlet Clark has related that the Saiiba of Rio de 

 Janeiro, a species closely related to ours [that is, 

 the Amazon species], has excavated a tunnel under 

 the bed of the river Parahyba, at a place where 

 it is as broad as the Thames at London Bridge. 

 At the Magoary rice mills, near Para, these ants 

 once pierced the embankment of a large reservoir ; 

 the great body of water which it contained escaped 

 before the damage could be repaired. 



" In the Botanic Gardens, at Para, an enterprising 

 French gardener tried all he could think of to 

 extirpate the Saiiba. With this object he made 

 fires over some of the main entrances to their 

 colonies, and blew the fumes of sulphur down the 

 galleries by means of bellows. I saw the smoke 

 issue from a great number of outlets, one of which 

 was seventy yards distant from the place where 



