Chap. I. 
ACTIVITY OF THE ANT. 
21 
from tlie whole country round collected to the feast, and were 
unable to finish the putrid masses. A large old alligator, which 
had never been known to commit any depredations, was found 
left high and dry in the mud among the victims. The fourth 
year was equally unpropitious, the fall of rain being insufficient 
to bring the grain to maturity. Nothing could be more trying. 
We dug down in the bed of the river deeper and deeper as the 
water receded, striving to get a little to keep the fruit-trees alive 
for better times, but in vain. Needles lying out of doors for 
months did not rust; and a mixture of sulphuric acid and water, 
used in a galvanic battery, parted with all its water to the air, 
instead of imbibing more from it, as it would have done in Eng¬ 
land. The leaves of indigenous trees were all drooping, soft, and 
slmvelled, though not dead; and those of the mimosse were 
closed at midday, the same as they are at night. In the midst 
of this dreary drought, it was wonderful to see those tiny crea¬ 
tures the ants running about with their accustomed vivacity. I 
put the bulb of a thermometer three inches under the soil in the 
sun at midday, and found the mercury to stand at 132° to 134°; 
and if certain kinds of beetles were placed on the surface, they 
ran about a few seconds and expired. But this broiling heat only 
augmented the activity of the long-legged black ants: they never 
tire; their organs of motion seem endowed with the same power 
as is ascribed by physiologists to the muscles of the human heart, 
by which that part of the frame never becomes fatigued, and 
which may be imparted to all our bodily organs in that higher 
sphere to which we fondly hope to rise. Where do these ants get 
their moisture ? Our house was built on a hard ferruginous con¬ 
glomerate, in order to be out of the way of the white ant, but 
they came in despite the precaution; and not only were they in 
tliis sultry weather able individually to moisten soil to the con¬ 
sistency of mortar for the formation of galleries, which in then- 
way of working is done by night (so that they are screened from 
the observation of birds by day in passing and repassing towards 
any vegetable matter they may wish to devour), but, when their 
inner chambers were laid open, these were also surprisingly hu¬ 
mid ; yet there was no dew, and, the house being placed on a 
rock, they could have no subterranean passage to the bed of the 
river, which ran about three hundred yards below the hill. Can 
