454 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



the bare haiid, and being able to secrete abundant stores of the 

 liquid which they use in making their habitation. 



In Dr. Livingstone's well-known work, there are several 

 interesting accounts of ants and their habits, and one anecdote 

 bears so aptly on the subject, that I give it in the writer's own 

 words. • 



After describing the terrible drought at Chonuaue, when the 

 river Kolobay ran dry and the fish perished, when the crocodile 

 himself was stranded and died, and the native trees could not 

 hold up their leaves, he proceeds as follows : — " In the midst of 

 this dreary drought, it was wonderful to see those tiny creatures, 

 the Ants, running about with their accustomed vivacity. I put 

 the bulb of a thermometer three inches under the soil in the sun 

 at mid-day, and found the mercury to stand at 132° to 134°; and 

 if certain beetles were placed on the surface, they only ran about 

 a few seconds and expired. 



" But this boiling heat only augmented the activiiy of the 

 long-legged Black Ants ; they never tire ; their organs of motion 

 seem endowed with the same power as is ascribed by physiologists 

 to the muscles of the human heart, by which that part of the 

 frame never becomes fatigued, and which may be imparted to all 

 our organs in that higher sphere to which we fondly hope to 

 rise. 



" Where do these Ants get their moisture ? Our house was 

 built on a hard, ferruginous conglomerate, in order to be out of 

 the way of the White Ant, but they came despite the precaution ; 

 and not only were they in this sultry weather able individually 

 to moisten soil to the consistency of mortar for the formation of 

 galleries, which in their way of working is done by night (so 

 that they are screened from the observation of birds by day in 

 passing and repassing towards any vegetable matter they may 

 wish to devour), but, when their inner chambers were laid open, 

 these were also surprisingly humid ; yet there was no dew, and 

 the house being placed on a rock, they could have no subterranean 

 passage to the bed of the river, which ran about three hundred 

 yards below the hill. Can it be that they have the power of 

 combining the oxygen and hydrogen of their vegetable food by 

 vital force as to form water ? " 



In corroboration of this opinion, Dr. Livingstone mentions an 

 insect found in Angola, and which is allied to the common 



