Chapt. v. Feeling remarks of ants. 69 



"would have to look for his lost daughter, chattering 

 "amongst the lofty branches of the trees in his park." 



But without putting "the girl of the period" up a tree 

 in this style, without need of any Ovidian metamorphoses 

 or reversewise Darwinian selections, we may still trace 

 in birds, beasts, insects, and fishes, unmistakable indica- 

 tions of the exercise of a means of inter-communication, 

 a power of speech; and it is not only by means audible 

 to man, but also by other means which man cannot trace, 

 that animals communicate. Whether it be by expres- 

 sions of eye or countenance, or by speech to us inaudible, 

 we cannot tell. But that they do communicate a long 

 train of thought, is fairly deducible from their carrying 

 out in concert well devised stratagems, which would be 

 impossible unless a common understanding had previously 

 been arrived at. 



Before we come to fish, let us take one example from 

 insects, in addition to those from beasts and birds. Watch 

 the ants moving in long columns along some conjointly 

 cleared road, in some particular direction, evidently with 

 some common object. How did they agree about and 

 communicate to each other that common plan? Put your 

 finger, or any other obstacle, in the line and stop them. 

 There is immediately excitement amongst them all, and 

 parties swarm up to remove the obstacle with a readiness 

 that seems to say the state of affairs has been rapidly 

 communicated, and a course of conduct resolved upon 

 and ordered by authority. See two ants meet and cross 

 feelers rapidly, and then go on their several ways. What 



