Journeying^ of an Ant. 11 



must find it a lal:)or and a toil to make progress 

 through the green forest of grass-blade and moss and 

 heaths and thick th^-me bunches, over-to^jping them 

 as cedars, but cedars all strewn in confusion, cross- 

 ing and interlacing, with no path through the jungle. 

 Watch this ant travelling patiently onward, and 

 mark the distance traversed b}^ the milestone of a 

 tall bennet. 



First up on a dr}- white stalk of grass lingering 

 from last autumn ; then down on to a thistle-leaf, 

 round it, and along a bent blade leading beneath into 

 the iutricac}' and darkness at the roots. Presentl}', 

 after a prolonged absence, up again on a dead fibre 

 of grass, brown and withered, torn up by the sheep 

 but not eaten : this lies like a bridge across a yawn- 

 ing chasm — the mark or indentation left b}' the hoof 

 of a horse scrambling up when the turf was wet and 

 soft. Half-way across the weight of the ant over- 

 balances it, slight as that weight is, and down it goes 

 into the cavit}' : undaunted, after getting clear, the 

 insect begins to cUmb up the precipitous edge and 

 again plunges into the wood. Coming to a broader 

 leaf, which promises an open space, it is found to be 

 hairy, and therefore impassable except with infinite 

 trouble ; so the wayfarer endeavors to pass under- 

 neath, but has in the end to work round it. Then a 

 breadth of moss intervenes, which is worse than the 

 vast prickly hedges with which savage kings fence 

 their cities to the explorer, who can get no certain 

 footing on it, but falls through and climbs up again 

 twent}' times, and burrows a way somehow in the 

 shad}' depths below. 



Next, a bunch of thyme crosses the path : and 



