these strange creatures from the enormous depths of the mine reminded me, when I first observed them, of the Cyclopes of Homeric fable. They were not very pugnacious, as I feared they would be, and I had no difficulty in securing a few with my fingers. I never saw them under any other circumstances than those here related, and what their special functions may be I cannot divine."

The subterranean galleries which these creatures form are of almost incredible extent-so vast, indeed, and so complicated, that they have never been fully investigated. A conjecture as to their size may be formed from the fact, that when sulphur smoke was blown into a nest, one of the outlets was detected at a distance of seventy yards. The Sauba has often done considerable damage to property, having pierced the embankment of a large reservoir, and let out all the water before the damage could be detected.

The winged class is composed of the perfect male and female, which take their departure from the nest in January and February. They are quite unlike the other workers and soldiers, being larger and darker, with rounder bodies and a more beelike aspect. The female is a really large insect, measuring more than two inches in expanse of wing, and the body being equal in size to a hornet; but the male is much smaller, as is generally the custom with the insect race. Of the hosts which pour out of the nests, only a few individuals remain after a space of twelve hours, the nest having been devoured by birds and other insect-eating creatures. Those which survive address themselves to the founding of new colonies; and so prolific are these insects, that, in spite of the vast destruction wrought among the winged individuals, to whom alone the task of reproduction belongs, man often has to retire before them, and even his art cannot conquer them.

The Sauba is one of the very few ants that does not attack other creatures. The real DRIVER, or VISITING, or FORAGING ANT, of which there are several species, belongs to another genus, Eciton, which will be described among the buildinginsects.

MOST of the British ants are among the burrowers, hollowing out subterranean abodes of great extent, and constructing them

upon some intricate plan, the principle of which is not very evident. The DUSKY ANT (Formica fusca) generally prefers banks with a southern aspect, in which it forms its elaborate dwelling. Like many other ants, it is somewhat of a builder as well as a miner, and can raise story upon story, as well as add them by excavation. This task is achieved by covering the former roof with a layer of fresh and moist clay, and converting it into a floor for the next story. Dry weather has the effect of retarding the ants in their labours, because they find a difficulty in procuring sufficient moisture wherewith to mix the clay.

The muscular power and the energy and endurance of the ant are truly wonderful; and if a human being, even if aided by tools, could perform such a day's work as was achieved by a single ant without them, he would be a wonder of the world. M. Huber had the curiosity and good sense to devote the whole of a rainy day to watching the proceedings of a single Dusky Ant. The insect began by scooping out a groove in the earth, about a quarter of an inch in depth, kneading the earth, which it removed into little pellets, and placing them on each side of the groove, so as to form a kind of wall. The interior of the groove was beautifully smooth and regular, and when completed it looked very like a railway cutting, and performed a similar office. After completing this task, it looked about and found that there was another opening in the nest to which a road must be made, and straightway set to work upon a second sunken path of a similar character, parallel to the first, and being separated from it merely by a wall of a third of an inch in height.

Compare the size of an ant with that of a man, and then see how vast are the powers of so small a creature. Taking all the calcu lations in round numbers, and very much to the disadvantage of the ant, we find that a single man, who would have achieved a similar work in a single day, must have acted as follows:

He must have excavated two parallel trenches, each of seventytwo feet in length and four feet six inches in depth; he must have made bricks from the clay he dug out, and with them built a wall along each side of the trenches, from two to three feet in height and fourteen or fifteen inches in thickness; and lastly. he must have gone over the whole of his work again, and smoothed the interior until it was exactly true, straight, and level. All this work must also have been done without the least

assistance, and the ground must be supposed to be filled with huge boulders, and covered with tree trunks, broken logs, and other impediments.

The most admirable subterranean architecture is perhaps that of the BROWN ANT (Formica brunnea), a species which is not very commonly known in this country, and is probably confined to certain localities. Its habitation and the mode of its construction have been carefully noted by M. Huber.

This ant works mostly at night, and during light, misty rain, the sunbeams being obnoxious, and heavy showers causing much inconvenience. The nest is a most complicated structure, composed of a series of stories, often reaching thirty or forty in number, and generally being built in a sloping direction. These stories are not composed of regular cells, like those of the bee, wasp, and hornet, but of chambers and galleries of very irregular form and dimensions, beautifully smoothed in the interior, and about one-fifth of an inch in height. The walls are about the twenty-fourth of an inch in thickness. The object of so many stories is to be able to regulate the heat and moisture of their establishments. If, for example, the sun is not very powerful, and the instinct of the little insects tells them that more heat is required in order to hatch the pupa which are undergoing their metamorphosis, they take up the white burdens and carry them into the upper chambers, where the heat is greater than below.

Again, if there should be a heavy rain, which floods all the lower stories, nothing is easier for the inhabitants than to remove themselves and brood into the upper sets of chambers, where they will be secure from the inundation. On those days when the sun is peculiarly hot, the ants secure a more equable temperature, by removing the young brood to the central flats, if they can be so called, while they themselves can obtain the needful moisture from the lower parts of the nest, to which the sunbeams cannot penetrate. Were it not for this provision which they instinctively make, all building operations would be stopped during a drought, whereas, by descending to the cellars or crypts of the mansion, the ants can obtain sufficient clay for ordinary work.

In order to watch the ants closer, Huber constructed a kind of vivarium in which they could work, and supplied them with

earth, sand, and other necessaries. As, in this artificial state of existence, the insects could not procure moisture from the depths of the earth, moisture from other sources was necessary. Whenever the insects had ceased to work, they could almost always be induced to renew their labours by dipping a stiff brush in water, and striking the hand upon it in such a manner that the water descended like very fine rain upon the carth. As soon as the formerly quiescent ants felt the grateful shower, they regained their activity, ran about with renewed energy, and set to work upon the soil, moulding it into little pellets, and testing each tiny ball with their antennæ before they applied it to the purposes for which it was made.

While some of the ants were engaged in this task, which must be considered analogous to brickmaking as practised by mankind, others were scooping out shallow hollows in the clay floor, the little ridges that were left standing being the foundation of the new walls. On these were dabbed the earthen pellets, and adjusted by means of the mandibles or by pressure of the fore feet, thus receiving compactness and uniformity. The most difficult part of such a task is the formation of the ceiling, but the ants do not appear to be at all embarrassed by so formidable an undertaking, but can lay ceilings of two inches in diameter with perfect certainty. The method of constructing the ceiling is by moulding the clay pellets into each angle of the chamber and also to the top of the pillars. As fast as one row of pellets becomes dry, a second is added; and the insects perform this delicate duty with such accuracy, that although so many centres are employed, the parts always coincide in the proper spots. The peculiar kneading and biting to which the clay pellets are subjected makes them exceedingly tenacious, so that they adhere strongly on the slightest contact.

When once these walls are completed, they are of very great strength, and are only the more consolidated by rain and heat. Before their completion, however, they do not appear to endure the extreme either of heat or moisture, and are taken to picces by the little architects if a drought should check the supply of that moisture, without which the work cannot be properly compacted.

Mr. Rennie, who followed up the observations of Huber, makes the following remarks on the nest of the ant :-" On

digging cautiously into a natural ant-hill, established upon the edge of a garden walk, we were enabled to obtain a pretty complete view of the interior structure. There were two stories, composed of large chambers, irregularly oval, communicating with each other by arched galleries, the walls of all which were as smooth as if they had been passed over by a plasterer's trowel.

The floors of the chambers, we remarked, were by no means either horizontal or level, but all more or less sloped, and exhibiting in each chamber at least two slight depressions of an irregular shape. We left the under story of this nest untouched, with the notion that the ant might repair the upper galleries, of which we had made a vertical section; but instead of doing so,