ACTIVITY OF THE ANT. 23 



from the whole country round collected to the feast, and were 

 unable to finish the putrid masses. A large old alligator, which 

 had never been known to commit any depredations, was found 

 left high and dry in the mud among the victims. The fourth 

 year was equally unpropitious, the fall of rain being insufficient 

 to bring the grain to maturity. Nothing could be more trying. 

 We dug down in the bed of the river deeper and deeper as the 

 water receded, striving to get a little to keep the fruit-trees alive 

 for better times, but in vain. Needles lying out of doors for 

 months did not rust ; and a mixture of sulphuric acid and water, 

 used in a galvanic battery, parted with all its water to the air, 

 instead of imbibing more from it, as it would have done in En- 

 gland. The leaves of indigenous trees were all drooping, soft, 

 and shriveled, though not dead ; and those of the mimosse were 

 closed at midday, the same as they are at night. In the midst 

 of this dreary drought, it was wonderful to see those tiny crea- 

 tures, the ants, running about with their accustomed vivacity. 1 

 put the bulb of a thermometer three inches under the soil, in the 

 sun, at midday, and found the mercury to stand at 132° to 134° ; 

 and if certain kinds of beetles were placed on the surface, they 

 ran about a few seconds and expired. But this broiling heat only 

 augmented the activity of the long-legged black ants : they never 

 tire ; their organs of motion seem endowed with the same power 

 as is ascribed by physiologists to the muscles of the human heart, 

 by which that part of the frame never becomes fatigued, and 

 which may be imparted to all our bodily organs in that higher 

 sphere to which we fondly hope to rise. Where do these ants get 

 their moisture ? Our house was built on a hard ferruginous con- 

 glomerate, in order to be out of the way of the white ant, but 

 they came in despite the precaution ; and not only were they, in 

 this sultry weather, able individually to moisten soil to the con- 

 sistency of mortar for the formation of galleries, which, in their 

 way of working, is done by night (so that they are screened from 

 the observation of birds by day in passing and repassing toward 

 any vegetable matter they may wish to devour), but, when their 

 inner chambers were laid open, these were also surprisingly hu- 

 mid. Yet there was no dew, and, the house being placed on a 

 rock, they could have no subterranean passage to the bed of the 

 river, which ran about three hundred yards below the hill. Can 



