THE FOUNDATION OF THE CITY 91 



48 



You will notice, too, in your experiments, that the friends 

 who appear to obey the behests of good fortune do not 

 always fly together, and that there will often be an interval 

 of several seconds between the different arrivals. As regards 

 these communications, therefore, we must ask ourselves the 

 question that Sir John Lubbock has solved as far as the ants 

 are concerned. 



Do the comrades who flock to the treasure only follow 

 the bee that first made the discovery, or have they been sent 

 on by her, and do they find it through following her indications, 

 her description of the place where it lies ? Between these 

 two ,hypotheses, that refer directly to the extent and work- 

 ing of the bee's intellect, there is obviously an enormous 

 difference. The English savant has succeeded, by means of 

 an elaborate and ingenious arrangement of gangways, corri- 

 dors, moats full of water, and flying bridges, in establishing 

 that the ants in such cases do no more than follow in the 

 track of the pioneering insect. With ants, that can be 

 made to pass where one will, such experiments are possible ; 

 but for the bee, whose wings throw every avenue open, some 

 other expedient must of necessity be contrived. I imagined 

 the following, which, though it produced no definite result, 

 might yet under more favourable conditions, and if organised 

 more carefully, give rise to definite and satisfactory conclusions. 



My study in the country is on the first-floor, above a 

 somewhat lofty room, sufficiently high, therefore, to be out 

 of the ordinary range of the bees' flight, except at times 



