Gh PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 
through which they mean to carry him, order is given, 
and the body turned endwise, and this is done a foot be- 
fore they come to the hole, and that without any stop or 
stay; and this is observable, that they never pull con- 
A table being cleared with great care,” 
trary ways. 
by way of experiment, of all the ants that were upon it, 
and some sugar being put upon it, some, after a circuitous 
route, were observed to arrive at it, when again de- 
parting without tasting the treasure, they hastened away 
to inform their friends of their discovery, who upon this 
came by myriads ;—“ and when they are thickest upon 
the table,” says he, “clap a large book (or any thing 
fit for that purpose) upon them, so hard as to kill all 
that are under it; and when you have done so, take 
away the book, and leave them to themselves but a 
quarter of an hour, and when you come again, you shall 
find all those bodies carried away. Other trials we 
make of their ingenuity, as this: —Take a pewter dish, 
and fill it half full of water, into which put a little gally- 
pot filled with sugar, and the ants will presently find it 
and come upon the table; but when they perceive it en- 
vironed with water, they try about the brims of the dish 
where the gally-pot is nearest; and there the most ven- 
turous amongst them commits himself to the water, 
though he be conscious how ill a swimmer he Is, and is 
drowned in the adventure: the next is not warned by 
his example, but ventures too, and is alike drowned ; 
and many more, so that there is a small foundation of 
their bodies to venture; and then they come faster than 
ever, and so make a bridge of their own bodies?.” 
« Mist of Barbadoes, p. 63. 
