354 SAGACITY OF ANTS. 



must have been the result of experience ; for, if they had waited 

 till the water actually invaded their terrestrial habitations, they 

 would not have been able to procure materials for their aerial 

 quarters, unless they dived down to the bottom for every mouthful 

 of clay. Some of these upper chambers are about the size of a 

 bean, and others as large as a man's thumb. They must have 

 built in anticipation, and if so, let us humbly hope that the suffer- 

 ers by the late inundations in France may be possessed of as much 

 common sense as the little black ants of the Dilolo plains. 



