328 
SAGACITY OF ANTS. 
Chap. XVII. 
of grass, and placed higher than the line of inundation. This 
must have been the result of experience, for, if they had waited 
till the water actually invaded their terrestrial habitations, they 
would not have been able to procure materials for their aerial 
quarters, unless they dived down to the bottom for every mouthful 
of clay. Some of these upper chambers are about the size of a 
bean, and others as large as a man’s thumb. They must have 
built in anticipation, and if so, let us humbly hope that the 
sufferers by the late inundations in France, may be possessed 
of as much common sense as the little black ants of the Dilolo 
plains. 
