264 The National Geographic Magazine 



species, but it is also referred to as " the 

 animal of the cotton." 



The perennial tree cotton furnishes 

 permanent breeding places, so that the 

 conditions are most favorable to the 

 propagation of the beetles in large num- 

 bers. The ants, however, are evidently 

 able to hold them in check, and thus 

 permit the regular cultivation of the 

 annual variety of cotton b3^ the Indians. 



If the cotton ant can survive a long 

 dry season and perhaps cold weather in 

 the table-lands of Guatemala, it might 

 easily learn to hibernate in Texas, as 

 has the boll weevil. The ant, indeed, is 

 much better able to protect itself against 

 frost, since it excavates a nest three feet 

 or more in the ground. That it is a rea- 

 sonably hardy insect is shown also by the 

 fact that several individuals have sur- 

 vived confinement for twelve days with- 

 out food and seem now to be thriving on 

 a diet of cane juice. To take worker 

 ants to Texas will be evidently a very 

 easy matter, but to obtain queens and to 

 establish permanent colonies may require 

 considerable time and experiment and a 

 thorough study of all the habits of the 

 species. 



Although the cotton seems to be es- 

 pecially adapted to attract the ant by 



means of its numerous nectaries, the in- 

 sect is not, like some of the members of 

 its class, confined to a single plant or to 

 a single kind of prey. It was observed 

 running about on plants of many differ- 

 ent families, and it attacks and destroys 

 insects of every order, including the 

 hemiptera, and even centipedes. On the 

 other hand, it does not do the least in- 

 jury to the cotton or to any other plant, 

 so far as has been ascertained, and it can 

 be handled with impunity, having none 

 of the waspish ill temper of so many of 

 the stinging and biting ants of the 

 tropics. 



Since where once established it exists 

 in large numbers and seeks its prey act- 

 ively, the ant is a much more efficient 

 destroyer of noxious insects than the 

 spider or the toad. It seems, in short, 

 not unlikely to become a valued asset 

 in the agriculture of tropical and sub- 

 tropical countries, if not in temperate 

 regions. 



Efforts will immediately be directed 

 toward introducing the ant to the cotton 

 fields of Texas. Mr Cook has been sup- 

 plied with all the funds and assistance he 

 needs, and the Secretary of Agriculture 

 will be much disappointed if good re- 

 sults are not realized. 



GEOGRAPHIC NOTES 



SIR HENRY M. STANLEY 



1 8 41 -May 10, 1904 



WHEN in 1870 the world became 

 alarmed at not hearing from 

 Livingstone for some time, Stanley, the 

 soldier, newspaper correspondent, and 

 Abyssinian explorer, was dispatched to 

 find him by James Gordon Bennett, of 

 the New York Herald. 



Stanley cut across from Zanzibar and 

 found Livingstone at Ujiji, on Lake 

 Tanganyika. He had been surrounded 

 by Arab slavers, his supplies destroyed, 



and his communication with the sea- 

 coast interrupted. After being relieved 

 by Stanley, Livingstone returned to 

 Lake Bangweolo, where he died in 1873. 



In 1874 Stanley took up the work of 

 Livingstone. He started from Zanzibar. 

 After circling Victoria Nyanza, he ex- 

 plored Albert Nyanza and Tanganyika, 

 and discovered Albert Edward Nyanza. 

 He then descended the Lualaba Basin, 

 which brought him to the Kongo, which 

 he followed to the ocean. 



Stanley was thus able to solve the last 

 great African problem, namely, that 



