^EB.] JOURNEY TO BETHELSDORP. 4^ 
therefore, under the dreadful necessity of murdering 
time by smoking pipe after pipe. 
Left False river at three, P.M. and walked on 
before the waggons. While waiting for their coming 
up, I often recollected the counsel of the wise man, 
who says, " Go to the ant, thou sluggard," viz. for 
instruction and reproof ; and the more frequently I do 
60, the more I admire the wisdom that taught him 
to select this insect as a pattern of activity; for, of 
all the creatures God has placed on our globe, this 
seems to be the most active and industrious. All 
their nests that I have watched have exhibited the 
utmost activity. Every one appears in such haste to 
accomplish his object, that they resemble the inhabit- 
ants of a city when on fire in all quarters ; and this 
activity is not confined to particular nests or particular 
times of the day, but is an universal virtue among 
ants, exhibited from sun-rise to sun-set. Viewing 
their motions while the waggon approached, I observed 
a little ant, with great exertion, bringing a large prick- 
ly seed home to the general magazine, which it carried 
in its mouth. When its progress at any time was im- 
peded by a stalk of grass lying across its path, it im- 
mediately turned about and dragged it after it. I 
observed great ingenuity in this contrivance. On 
arriving at the mouth of its nest, which was under- 
ground, it left the seed above, ran into the hole and 
€Oon brought a large ant, who laying hold of the seed 
carried it down with the greatest ease. How it con- 
veyed the information to the other that his assistance 
a 
