“AMONG THE NUTS. iW 
minute parallel earthworks drawn across their highway. 
Those that came out of the nest on arriving at the little 
ridge on their side immediately stopped, worked their 
antennz in astonishment, then went up to the top of it, 
and seemed to try to look round. After a moment they 
ran back and touched those that were coming on to 
communicate the intelligence. Every ant that came did 
exactly the same thing; not one of them passed the 
little ridge, but all returned. By-and-by the head of the 
column began to spread out and search right and left 
for the lost track. They scouted this way and they 
scouted that, they turned and doubled and went through 
every possible evolution, hundreds of them, sometimes 
a score at once, yet not one of them attempted to go 
straight forward, which would have brought them into 
their old path. It was scarcely thrice the length of an 
ant’s body to where their path began again; they could 
not see or scent, or in any way find out what was so 
short a distance in front of them. The most extraor- 
dinary thing was that not one ventured to explore straight 
forward ; it was as if their world came to an end at that 
little ridge, and they were afraid to step into chaos. 
The same actions were going on behind the other ridge 
of sand just opposite, an inch away. There the column 
of ants that had been out foraging was met with a like 
difficulty, and could not find their way. There, too, hun- 
dreds of ants were exploring right and left in every direc- 
tion except straight forward, in a perfect buzz of excitc- 
ment. Once or twice an ant from either party happened 
to mount on the parallel ridges at the same time, and 
if they had strained forward and stretched out their 
antenne they could have almost touched each cther. 
Yet they seemed quite unconscious of each other's pre- 
sence. Unless in a well-worn groove a single ant appears 
