THE LIFE OF THE FOREST. 
49 
live beyond forty years of age; and those first carried 
off are invariably the most skilful and ardent at their 
work. 
All the life of the forest centres in the quarrymen 
and the ants. Formerly it had the bees also. They 
were very numerous, and may still be met with in 
the direction of Franchart. But they have greatly 
decreased in numbers since the planting of so many 
pines and Northern trees, which kill everything with 
their shade, and in many places have exterminated 
the heather and the flowers. On the other hand, the 
yellow ants, which prefer for their materials the 
prickles and catkins of the pines, appear to prosper. 
No forest, perhaps, is richer in every species of ants. 
These, then, are the true inhabitants, the true soul 
of the desert; the ants toiling in the sand, the quarry- 
men working in the sandstone. Both are of the same 
race; the men are ants on the surface, and the ants 
are men below. 
I admired the resemblance in their destiny, in their 
laborious patience, in their admirable perseverance. 
The sandstone is a very refractory and rebellious 
substance, and often splitting badly, subjects the poor 
workmen to severe disappointments. Those especially 
who are forced by a protracted winter to return to the 
quarry before the end of the bad weather, find the 
hard and yet porous blocks excessively damp and half 
frozen. As a result, they have numerous ill-wrought 
stones, and a mass of waste. However, they do not lose their courage 
and without murmuring recommence their painful toil. 
4 
