Miscellaneous. 189 



distribution of the various Building-stones in the New-York-State 

 are described at pages 9-24 ; and descriptive notes of these materials, 

 the quarry-districts, and the quarries follow (pp. 25-143). Some 

 statistics of the quarries and their products are given at pp. 145 and 

 146 ; and a useful index follows. The author supplies careful notes 

 on tlie size of the quarries, the date of opening, the possessor, and 

 the buildings constructed of the several kinds of stone ; also parti- 

 culars as to the dip of the strata, direction of joints and cleavage, 

 petrography, water in the stone, the size of obtainable blocks, and 

 the machinery employed in raising them. This memoir has been 

 the work of an industrious and conscientious observer, who acknow- 

 ledges the kind help of numerous owners, managers, and superin- 

 tendents of quarries, and refers to specimens of the rocks, illustrating 

 their nature and economic value, that have been deposited in 

 the New- York-State Museum at Albany. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



Note on the Sense of Direction in a European Ant (Formica rufa). 

 ' By Dr. Heinrt C. McCook, 



The author remarked that during the summer of 1887 he had 

 made an observation upon the well-known " horse-ant," or Formica 

 rufa, of Great Britain. While visiting the Trosachs of Scotland he 

 found a number of nests of this species scattered throughout the 

 olen known as the Pass of Achray, through which flows the little 

 Achray Biver, " the stream that joins Loch Katrine to Achray." 

 These nests are found on either side of the foot-walk which leads 

 from the Trosachs glen to the "sluices," as they are popularly 

 called, which regulate the stage of water in Loch Katrine. 



1. Structure of the Ant-hills. — The mounds raised by the rufous 

 ants are heaps of earth intermingled with chippage of various sorts ; 

 they rise to the height of about three feet, and some of them are six 

 or seven feet in diameter across the base. They stand amid the 

 tall bracken which overhangs them, and at times almost conceals 

 them from the passer-by. The surface of the mounds is covered with 

 bits of straw and leaves, stalks of grass and ferns, and various 

 material of like sort which forms a quite decided thatch. Numbers 

 of openings ai^pear upon the surface at irregular intervals from the 

 summit to the base, and in the afternoon at 4 o'clock the workers in 

 vast numbers were dragging the chippage back and forth, appa- 

 rently engaged in closing the doors for the night, although time did 

 not permit an observation of the actual closure. 



2. Character of Roads and Engineering Skill. — That which espe- 

 cially attracted Dr. McCook's attention was the character of the 

 roads leading from the ant-hills to the various points in the sur- 



