64 
THE 
CANADIAN NATURALIST. 
C, — Why do polished substances conduct heat with more 
facility than rough ones ? 
F, — When we ask the reasons of those laws which we 
find imposed on nature, we are very apt to lose ourselves in 
the labyrinths of doubt and uncertainty ; yet if I might pre- 
sume humbly to venture an opinion on this subject, I should 
conjecture that it may be owing to this fact : polished bodies 
come into a closer and more general contact with the sub- 
stance that touches them, and consequently abstract heat 
from a larger surface, whereas, rough bodies touch only at 
the minute prominences which cause their roughness, and so 
abstract heat only from those points with which these promi- 
nences have contact. 
C. — Do any species of insects lay up a store of food for 
their consumption in winter ? 
F. — I am not aware that any do, except bees : it is very 
generally supposed that ants collect grains of corn, and store 
them up ; and this is believed to be confirmed by the words 
of Agur ; The ants are a people not strong, yet they pre- 
pare their meat in the summer and those of Solomon, 
Go to the ant, — which provideth her meat in ttie sum- 
mer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.'^ — Prov. xxx. 
25, — and vi. 6. 8. But in the first place here is nothing 
said about laying up for winter, but merely that she 
works while she can, makes the best use of her time ; 
and in the next place, the Scriptures are not designed to 
teach us facts in natural history; it is quite sufficient for 
their purpose if the illustrations of truths, drawn from na- 
ture, are commonly supposed to be correct. Modern na- 
turalists have proved that the ant does not feed on corn, 
but on saccharine or animal substances ; and that what are 
thought to be grains of corn in their nests, and often in their 
mouths, are neither more nor less than the pupae, or rather 
the cocoons containing them. Besides this, in cold climates. 
