166 EDGE OF THE JUNGLE 



seventy yards away it joined the spot where I 

 had first seen my friend. So, with occasional 

 spurts, he had done two hundred and ten feet 

 in thirty minutes, and this in spite of the fact 

 that he had picked up a supercargo. 



Two parts of hydrogen and one of oxygen, 

 under the proper stimulus, invariably result in 

 water; two and two, considered calmly and with- 

 out passion, combine into four; the workings of 

 instinct, especially in social insects, is so mechan- 

 ical that its results can almost be demonstrated 

 in formula; and yet here was my Atta leaf- 

 carrier burdened with a minim. The worker At- 

 tas vary greatly in size, as a glance at a populous 

 trail will show. They have been christened mac- 

 rergates, desmergates and micrer gates; or we 

 may call the largest Maxims, the average middle 

 class Mediums, and the tiny chaps Minims, and 

 all have more or less separate functions in the 

 ecology of the colony. The Minims are replicas 

 in miniature of the big chaps, except that their 

 armor is pale cinnamon rather than chestnut. 

 Although they can bite ferociously, they are too 

 small to cut through leaves, and they have very 

 definite duties in the nest; yet they are found 



