74 CURIOUS HOMES AND THEIR TENANTS. 



structures taller than the highest mountains." The 

 greater pull that gravitation exerts upon men as com- 

 pared with insects is not taken into account. 



It requires a number of ants to weigh a grain. 

 Such an insect can fall from any given height with- 

 out the slightest injury. 



The materials — the muscle fibers and flesh — that go 

 to make up an animal are as strong in an insect as in 

 any other creature, but the resistance they have to 

 meet in gravitation is very little. If other things 

 were proportional as well as mere size, if gravitation 

 had no greater hold on a man than it has on an ant, 

 or if the material of which man is constructed were 

 as much stronger as a man is larger than an insect, his 

 strength and power would equal and surpass that of 

 the latter. In other words, living creatures are and 

 must be more under the power of gravitation as they 

 increase in size, irrespective of their mere muscular 

 power. 



ANTS AT HOME. 



HOW THEY KEEP HOUSE. 



There are no lawmakers among the ants, and no 

 one rules over them. Like the bees, they have what 

 are called their queens, bat the so-called queens pos- 

 sess no power to command their subjects. 



The fact of the matter is, every beehive and 

 every ant-hill consists of an immense family of 

 brothers and sieters, and she who is called the queen 



