io Wild Life in a Southern County 



falling on it, and a shadowy darkness in the vacant orbits 

 of the eyes, fills us with sadness. ' As leaves on leaves, so 

 men on men decay ; ' how much more so with these crea- 

 tures whose generations are so short ! 



If we look closely into the grass here on the slope of 

 the fosse it is animated by a busy throng of insects rushing 

 in hot haste to and fro. They must find it a labour and a 

 toil to make progress through the green forest of grass- 

 blade and moss and heaths and thick thyme bunches, over- 

 topping them as cedars, but cedars all strewn in confusion, 

 crossing and interlacing, with no path through the jungle. 

 Watch this ant travelling patiently onward, and mark the 

 distance traversed by the milestone of a tall bennet. 



First up on a dry white stalk of grass lingering from 

 last autumn ; then down on to a thistle leaf, round it, and 

 along a bent blade leading beneath into the intricacy and 

 darkness at the roots. Presently, after a prolonged absence, 

 up again on a dead fibre of grass, brown and withered, 

 torn up by the sheep but not eaten : this lies like a bridge 

 across a yawning chasm — the mark or indentation left by 

 the hoof of a horse scrambling up when the turf was wet 

 and soft. Half-way across the weight of the ant over- 

 balances it, slight as that weight is, and down it goes into 

 the cavity : undaunted, after getting clear, the insect begins 

 to climb up the precipitous edge and again plunges into 

 the wood. Coming to a broader leaf, which promises an 

 open space, it is found to be hairy, and therefore impass- 

 able except with infinite trouble ; so the wayfarer endea- 

 vours to pass underneath, but has in the end to work 

 round it. Then a breadth of moss intervenes, which is 

 worse than the vast prickly hedges with which savage 

 kings fence their cities to the explorer, who can get no 

 certain footing on it, but falls through and climbs up a^ain 



