192 THE UNIVERSE. 



dreaded than the devouring Termites. They do not anni- 

 hilate our houses, but they invade the fields and build there 

 enormous nests which look like so many little mountains 

 fifteen to twenty feet high. They multiply to such an ex- 

 tent in certain plantations, that the colonist is obliged to 

 abandon them. Sometimes, however, he resists the in- 

 vaders, declares a war of extermination against them, and 

 fires their dwellings by the aid of certain combustible 

 materials. Sometimes artillery charged with grape-shot is 

 employed to overthrow the lofty ramparts of these ants, 

 and scatter both the ruins and the architects. 



Thus is man obliged to attack an insect with the cannon. 



Sometimes he i^esorts to the mine, a step he is compelled 

 t(j take against certain winged ants in the tropical coun- 

 tries, which sink their nests as much as twenty-five feet in 

 the ground, and these are so compact that they can only 

 be torn up by the aid of powder, and by overturning all 

 the earth round about them. Ch. jNIiiller relates that in 

 Brazil, entire provinces on the l:)anks of the Parana have 

 been in this way transformed almost into deserts. 



CHAPTER VII. 



GEAVE-DIGGEES AND MINERS. 



Despite that supremacy over all creation which the pride 

 of man attributes to himself, a fragile insect (iften surpasses 

 him in energy, and in certain cases in intelligence. Leave 

 one of our race to the resources of only liis own organs, 



