246 
AN INVASION OF ANTS. 
the warmth of the sun without being injured by its scorching rays. 
But these are not fortresses; the ants have no need of them; for in 
the tropical regions they are the sovereigns and tyrants of all other 
beings. The exterminating carabi , the invading necrophori, which 
play among us, as insects, the role of the eagle and the vulture, scarcely 
venture to make their appearance in the burning latitudes where the 
ants hold sway. Everything which lies on the earth’s surface they 
immediately devour. Lund, in his Memoire sur les Fourmis, says that 
he had scarcely time to pick up a bird which he had seen drop. The 
ants were already on the spot, and had seized upon it. The sanitary 
police is performed by them with an implacable and energetic exactitude. 
The great ants of the South are much more savage than our 
European species; and feeling themselves sovereigns and mistresses, 
feared by all, dreading none, they march forward imperturbably, with¬ 
out suffering any obstacle to divert their course. If a house stand in 
their way, they enter, and all that is alive within it—even the enor¬ 
mous, venomous, and formidable spiders, ay, and small mammiferous 
animals also—is devoured. Men give place to them. And if you 
cannot quit your house, you have reason to fear their invasion. Once, 
at Barbadoes, a long column was seen defiling for several days in 
formidable numbers. All the earth was black with them, and the 
torrent poured forward straight in the direction of the houses. They 
were crushed by hundreds, without heeding their losses; myriads 
were destroyed, but they continued to advance. No wall, no ditch, 
was of any service; water even could not arrest their progress: for it 
is known that they construct living bridges, by fastening on to one 
another in clusters and garlands. Fortunately, the plan was adopted 
of sowing the ground in advance of them with numerous tiny vol¬ 
canoes, small heaps of gunpowder, which were fired at intervals beneath 
them, and exploding, swept away whole files, and dispersed the rest, 
—covering them with fire and smoke, and blinding them with dust. 
This scheme proved successful. At least, the ants turned aside a little, 
and moved in a different direction. 
Linnaeus calls the termites the scourge of the two Indies; and we 
