THE COASTS OF SAINTONGE. 361 



but fierce foes. It is not unusual in opening a nest 

 of the Formica cunicularia to find numbers of dead 

 Termites, chiefly workers and Larvas, in the galleries 

 which contain the larval Ants, where they have been 

 brought as food for the young of the community. 

 This species might, therefore, be advantageously 

 employed to exterminate the Termites of Roche- 

 fort. M. Lespes never found any stores of food in 

 the nest, nor did he find anything in the nurseries 

 resembling those fungoid growths which Smeathman 

 described. 



On taking a retrospective glance at these records 

 of " The Rambles of a Naturalist," my thoughts have 

 necessarily been led to dwell on the many varied 

 events which have checkered my path during the 

 years that have elapsed since I began to depict the 

 impressions, and to record the observations yielded 

 by those journeyings by sea and land, which are 

 described in the present volumes. 



In this review of the pains and pleasures of a 

 period which stands widely apart from the ordinary 

 routine of my existence, I have felt the joys and 

 sorrows of years crowded into a few hours, and I 

 have risen from this contemplation of by-gone days 

 more and more deeply impressed with the conviction 

 of the beneficent, calming and ennobling influences 

 of the study of nature generally, and of the history 

 of living beings more especially. The study of 

 zoology, by bringing us constantly into the presence 

 of the infinitely grand and varied problem of orga- 

 nisation, and by comprehending within the scope of 



