164 EDGE OF THE JUNGLIE 
for well over two hundred yards. Taking little 
Third-of-an-inch for a type (although he would 
rank as a rather large Atta), and comparing 
him with a six-foot man, we reckon this trail, 
ant-ratio, as a full twenty-five miles. Belt re- 
cords a leaf-cutter’s trail half a mile long, which 
would mean that every ant that went out, cut 
his tiny bit of leaf, and returned, would traverse 
a distance of a hundred and sixteen miles. This 
was an extreme; but our Atta may take it for 
granted, speaking antly, that once on the home 
trail, he has, at the least, four or five miles ahead 
of him. 
The Atta roads are clean swept, as straight 
as possible, and very conspicuous in the jungle. 
The chief high-roads leading from very large 
nests are a good foot across, and the white sand 
of their beds is visible a long distance away. I 
once knew a family of opossums living in a stump 
in the center of a dense thicket. When they left 
at evening, they always climbed along as far as 
an Atta trail, dropped down to it, and followed 
it for twenty or thirty yards. During the rains 
I have occasionally found tracks of agoutis and 
deer in these roads. So it would be very possi- 
ble for the Attas to lay the foundation for an 
