The Zoologist— July, 1868. 1273 



exceeding eighty yards from the ant hill, there was a considerable 

 pond of filthy water, which, being in the street, the town authorities 

 ordered it to be drained. A ditch was opened along one side of the 

 street, which intersected the ant mound near its centre, and for the 

 purpose of inundating and drowning the ants, the workmen let the 

 water into the ditch, and when it reached the mound (which had been 

 ditched through to its further side) it found many open passages, down 

 which it flowed quite freely : it was near night when the workmen left 

 it, with the water passing into and seeming to be rapidly enlarging the 

 hole it had already opened in the mound. The workmen and a 

 number of the town people visited the place next morning: the pond 

 was dry, and the ant mound had also disappeared ; and what was more 

 wonderful still, the large live-oak had settled down into the chasm that 

 had been made by the disappearance of the ant mound, until the 

 lower limbs of the tree were resting on the brink of it. (The lower 

 limbs of a prairie live-oak are seldom more than six or seven feet 

 above ground.) The outer ends of the very numerous live-oak roots 

 were still clinging by their long ramifications in the walls of the great 

 pit all around, and the large tree was swinging securely upon this 

 net-work of roots as upon a hammock. But where did the water, 

 mound and ants all go to ? was the question among the La Grange 

 folks. The Colorado river passes in its deep channel three hundred 

 yards distant from the ant hill, and the popular supposition was, that 

 the mound, ants and all, had passed through their great tunnel, which 

 they had previously excavated, into the river. Several years have 

 gone by, and still when it rains the pond vents itself through that ant 

 chasm, and the live-oak, though still green and thrifty, has settled 

 deeper in the ground. I know of many other wells and tunnels that 

 were made by the cutting ants, but as I have recorded a sufficient 

 number of them here to establish these great works as a characteristic 

 trait in their natural action, it is deemed unnecessary to add any 

 more. 



All the sand and other material that is seen piled on the ant mound 

 comes from the wells, tunnels and cells which are excavated for the 

 accommodation of the ants. The work required to throw up these 

 quite conspicuous mounds must have consumed many years, as well 

 as an immense amount of labour. All the sand-carrying labour is 

 performed by the smaller sized ants, principally by the very smallest: 

 these are of a dingy brown colour, and when crowded have a woolly 

 appearance. These little fellows are lazy and extremely slow in their 



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