ANIS AS GEOLOGIC AGENTS IN THE TROPICS 153 
of ants inthat country, I have found a few interesting notes upon 
the subject some of which I quote here. 
Speaking of the ants inthe River Plate country Sir Woodbine 
Parish refers to ‘‘Corrientes and Paraguay, where whole plains 
are covered with their dome-like and conical edifices, rising five 
and six feet in height. 
yy 
Ant-hills on the hills west of the city of Theophilo Ottoni, State of Minas Geraes, 
Brazil. 
The Robertsons mention ants’ nests among the palms near 
Assuncion, Paraguay, as ‘‘thousands of conic masses of earth, to 
the height of eight and ten feet, and having a base of nearly five 
in diameter.’’? 
Referring to the injury done to crops by the sauba ants the 
president of the Imperial Instituto Fluminense de Agricultura 
says: ‘‘Among the obstacles with which planters have to con- 
tend . . . . there stands perhaps in the front ranks the destruc- 
tive force represented by the sauba.’’3 Joun C. BRANNER. 
tBuenos Ayres and the provinces of the Rio de la Plata, by StR WOODBINE 
PARISH: 2d ed., p. 252. London, 1852. 
? Letters on Paraguay, by J. P. and W. P. RoBERTSON, Vol. I, 270-274. Lon- 
don, 1838. 
3 Henrique de Paulo Mascarenhas in the Revista Agricola do Imperial Instituto, 
December 1883, XVI, 215. 
