ACTIVITY OF THE ANT. 13 



ran dry ,- so many fish were killed that the hysenas 

 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 unpro- 

 pitious, 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 England. The leaves of indi- 

 genous trees were all drooping, soft, and shrivelled, 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 creatures the 

 ants running about with their accustomed vivacity. I put 

 the bulb of a thermometer three inches under the soil in 

 the sun at midday, and found the mercury to stand at 

 1 32 to 1 34 ; 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 conglomerate, in order to be out of 

 the way of the white ant, but they came in despite the pre- 

 caution ; and not only were they in this sultry weather 

 able individually to moisten soil to the consistency 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 oi birds by day in passing and repassing 

 towards any vegetable matter they may wish to devour), 

 buc, when their inner chambers were laid open, these were 

 also surprisingly humid ; yet there was no dew, and, the 

 house being placed on a rock, they could have no sub- 

 terranean passage to the bed of the river, which ran about 



