8 



NATUEAL SCIENCE NEWS. 



tumbler — Read by Francis II 

 Knauff before the Studets' Mineral- 

 ogical Club, Philadelfihia July 7, 

 i8gj. 



Nature's Most Invincible Creat- 

 ures. 



We are apt to consider ourselves 

 the most powerful and all-conquer- 

 ing members of the animal world, 

 and next to us we range such creat- 

 ures as the lion, tiger, grizzly bear 

 and elephant, as capable of main- 

 taining their own against all com- 

 ers in an open hand-to-hand or 

 mouth-to-mouth fight. Yet in do- 

 ing so we err greatly, simply be- 

 cause we consider mere bigness or 

 muscular force, forgetting the en- 

 ergy and the intellectual powers 

 that make one of nature's tiny 

 creatures, when combined in the 

 vast numbers in which they are al- 

 ways found, by far the most for- 

 midable animal force known on 

 land. Therefore, when the ques- 

 tion is put to us, "Which do you 

 consider the most resistless of all 

 animals?" it is always safe to re- 

 ply that if warlike manifestations 

 are referred to, the soldier or driv- 

 er ants are far and away the most 

 terribly invincible creatures with 

 which we can be brought in con- 

 tact. 



Monsieur Coillard, a French 

 missionary in the Barotse Valley 

 of South Central Africa, thus writes 

 of these terrors there: "One sees 

 them busy in innumerable battal- 

 ions, ranked and disciplined, wind- 

 ing along like a broad black rib- 

 bon of watered silk. Whence 

 come they? Where are they go- 

 ing? Nothing can stop them nor 

 can any object change their route. 

 If it is an inanimate object, they 

 turn it aside and pass on; if it is 

 living they assail it venomously, 

 crowding one on top of the other 

 to the attack, while the main army 

 passes on, businesslike and silent. 

 Is the obstacle a trench or a 

 stream of water? Then they form 

 themselves at its edge into a com- 

 pact mass. Is this a deliberating 

 assembly? Probably, for soon the 

 mass stirs and moves on, crosses 

 the trench or stream, continues in 

 its incessant and mysterious march. 

 A multitude of these soldiers are 

 sacrificed for the common good, 

 and these legions, which know not 

 what it is to be beaten, pass over 

 the corpses of these victims to 

 their destination. " 



Against these tiny enemies no 

 man, nor band of men, no lion or 

 tiger, nor even a herd of elephants, 



can do anything but hurriedly get 

 out of the way. Among the Bar- 

 otse natives a favorite form of cap- 

 ital punishment is to coat the vic- 

 tim with grease and throw him be- 

 fore the advancing army of soldier 

 ants. The quickness with which 

 the poor wretch is dispatched is 

 marvelous when it is considered 

 that each ant can do nothing more 

 than merely tear out a small par- 

 ticle of flesh and carry it off. Yet 

 in a surprisingly short time the 

 writhing victim will have been 

 changed into a skeleton of clean 

 and polished bones that will make 

 the trained anatomist envious. 



All are familiar with the tales of 

 how these armies of ants enter a 

 tropical village aud take entire 

 possession of it, driving its inhabi- 

 tants out in terror, and at last in a 

 few hours or a day or two aban- 

 doning it cleaner than the arts of 

 the most orderlv housekeeper 

 could ever make it. These are not 

 travelers' tales. The most gifted 

 pen must fail to give an adequate 

 idea to the uninitiated of just how 

 thorough and searching these 

 creatures are in ridding a house of 

 every bit of animal or vegetable 

 matter in it. Perhaps, however, 

 the narration of the following bit 

 of personal experience may help to 

 illustrate it. I had returned from 

 a day's tramp in the hills, laden 

 with trophies in the shape of trop- 

 ical insects, some of them, per- 

 haps, new to the eyes of scientists, 

 and all of certain value when I was 

 called out of my house by the cry, 

 "The driver ants, the driver ants." 

 Hastily placing most of my collec- 

 tions in glass jars and tin boxes, 

 so as to be out of the reach of the 

 invaders, and gathering such 

 clothes as I would need for a day 

 or two, I made a rather undignifi- 

 ed retreat. After I had done so, I 

 remembered that I had left some 

 rare bees pinned in a box that was 

 in the pocket of my collecting 

 coat, but as the coat had been 

 placed in a strong chest and this 

 chest was heavily scented with 

 naphthalin or "tar camphor," and 

 the lid fitted down very tight, I 

 felt that they were safe. The next 

 morning when I went back, after a 

 night spent in my hammock in a 

 tamarind tree, I found that a bunch 

 of bananas, consisting of a thick 

 stem and about 100 of the fruit, 

 there was no trace whatever, save 

 the dangling strings with which it 

 had been hung from the ceiling; 

 and not a vestige of bread, choco- 

 late, coffee and other eatable odds 

 and ends could be found on the 

 thoroughly cleaned shelves on 



which some food had been left. 

 Even the cracks between the floor 

 boards had been cleaned out, the 

 particles of edible matter having 

 been carried away or devoured and 

 the mere dust left where it could 

 easily be swept away. 



This was not so bad, for a good 

 cleaning never hurts a house in the 

 tropics, but when I came to exam- 

 ine my chest and found that a hole 

 quite two inches in diameter had 

 been torn in one end through an 

 inch board of hard wood, that the 

 box in my coat pocket had also 

 been pierced and every one of the 

 pins on which my beetles had been 

 arranged stood in place as empty 

 and clean as when taken out of the 

 paper, I had a better idea of the 

 thoroughness of these tiny scaven- 

 gers than ever before. — Dr. Eu- 

 gene Murray Aaron in Scientific 

 American. 



The Bahama Expedition of the 

 State University of Iowa. 



During the summer of 1893 a 

 most unusual move in educational 

 circles was made by the State Uni- 

 versity of Iowa. 



It is well known among scien- 

 tists that nowhere in the world, 

 possibly, do the waters of the sea 

 throb with a more varied and won- 

 derful marine flora and fauna than 

 around the Bahamas and Florida 

 keys. The "gardens of the sea" 

 are there! With a water-glass (a 

 common wooden bucket with a 

 glass bottom) one looks down 

 through brilliantly hued waters 

 upon scenes of wonder and exquis- 

 ite beauty. 



There are great jagged caves of 

 coral, with curious sponges grow- 

 ing about their walls; long, slender 

 sponges of lilac and ocher, and 

 some of scarlet and others of brown 

 and black, and still others coarse 

 and clumsy, looking like lumps of 

 yellow mud or clay. There the 

 slender gorgonias, ranging through 

 all the shades of browns and tans, 

 lift their delicate fingers teeming 

 with polyp life. Yonder one sees 

 a cavern carpeted with gorgeous 

 "sea anemones," their tentacles 

 glowing with bright green and 

 scarlet and maroon and flesh color. 

 These are Neptune's sea flowers! 

 Here those treasures of the mer- 

 maids — the "sea fans" — gracefully 

 wave their red and yellow lace- 

 work, and the "sea feathers" toss 

 their nodding plumes. On this 

 jutting coral crag a "sea urchin" 

 bristles in long, slender black 

 spines, and a little further on one 



