ACROSS UNKNOWN SOUTH AMERICA 
one had to spend hours watching their actions with a 
microscope, it was so interesting. They seemed to have 
two social classes among them, the labouring class and the 
warriors. To the labourers was given the heavy task of 
digging underground channels, the surplus earth of which 
was thrown up with great force through apertures in the 
soil until the earth so displaced and amassed formed a 
high heap, riddled in its interior by hundreds of channels 
and miniature chambers and apartments. To the war¬ 
riors, really more like a kind of perfect police service, was 
entrusted the safety of the colony and principally the 
protection of the young. White ants have many enemies, 
especially among the larger ants, which carry on regular 
wars against them; for although ants and termites, com¬ 
monly called white ants, have many points in common, 
yet they belong to totally different orders of insects, as 
can be easily noticed in their structure and development. 
The peculiar structure of the enlarged heads of the war¬ 
rior termites was particularly noticeable. Some had a 
formidable head provided with tentacles and powerful 
rodent clippers, as well as the peculiar whitish cuirasses 
in sections of the body. The workers had more normal 
shapes, the head being better proportioned with the 
body. 
It was enough to split one of the heaps and watch 
the termites at work to learn a lesson of what devotion 
and duty mean. In the many passages overcrowded 
with ants — there was never confusion — you saw hun¬ 
dreds of them, either conveying food or building materials 
to the various quarters. Some carried leaves, others car¬ 
ried pieces of wood, seeds, or dead insects. If one was 
not strong enough to convey its load, others came to its 
assistance, although they generally seemed to resent the 
help of others in doing their work. I always noticed that 
when one was in difficulty and others ran to the rescue 
there generally ensued what seemed to be a row, and the 
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