The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1870-07-22
LiIiputian Fireman.

A writer of an Intensely interesting
article i'm 1U The Year Round, upon
the habitations of ants, thus describes
the extinguishment of a fire in an ant
city of the FOrmica rtya, or wood
ants:
at was composed mainly of twigs,
straw, and pine spicula, and swarmed
with insect life. Poking our walking
sticks into the top of the mound, and
laying bare the upper surface, the for
micaus, who up till then had been
wholly unaware of our presence, be-
gan TO understand that calamity had
come upon them. Betaking them
selves, as is their wont, to the care of
the young, countless thousands of
them suddenly appeared, each carry
ing cocoon much bigger than itself,
which it was evidently anxious to de-
post in some place outof the reach of
a danger which, although they could
not comprehend, they knew to be
both formidable and imminent. Such
a rv-skurry, such running TO and
fro, such a getting up and down stairs,
as The song says, such a commotlon
could scarcely have been known even
at Brussels on the memorable night of
the ball, on the eve of the great battle
of Waterloo, when it was suddenly
announced to the officers of thy allied
armies that the French were advanc-
ing upon the city
When thronged the citizens with terror
dumb,
Or whispering with white. lips, The foe
they come! they come"
ave all looked on with interested
curiosity, and one of my companions
having finished his first cigar, drew a
box of lucifers from his pocket, and
leisurely proceeded to light second.
This done, he carelessly threw the
burning match upon the ant-hill. 1t
was an &C. as cruel as it would have
been in Lemuel CULVER, had that
mountainous traveller wilfully set fire
to the city of Liliput. The formicans
were for an instant confused, and.ap-
peared not to know what to do. But
their pcrpleXity was of short dura-
ton. Inless than half a minute scores
and hundreds of ants rushed upon the
blazing beam-for such il must have
appeared in their eyes-and exerting
their strength simultaneously upon it,
endeavored to thrust it from their
city. Many of them were burned to
death in the gallant cndeavor, but the
survivors, nothing daunted, pressed
forward over their dead or writing
bodies, as if conscious there was no
safety for those who still lived as long
as the awful combus:ible was permit.
ted to blaze and crackle in the midst
of them. Twas apprehensivc that the
whole mound, built as it was of dry
twigs, would take fire; but the mists
had lain upon the mountain and the
valley, the air was moist, and the flame
of the match burnt upwards. EDWARDS
rushed the resolute firemen, score
upon score, hundred upon hundred,
till at last they rolled the match over
and over, and out of their precincts,
| charrcd and blackcncd, and incapable
of further mischief. We all, more or
less, mistrustcd oar eyes, and the
Youngest, most thOughtlcss, and there
fore tic most cruel of our company,
suggested that if there were design
OH the part OF the ants i'll acting as we
supposed they had done, there would
be no harm in making second eXpe-
rimcht. No sooner said than done.
Another match was fgnited and
thrown upon the heap, and again,
precisely rs on the first occasion, the
ants rushed pcll-mcll upon the blazing
intruder, to prevent a contlagration,
which, had it taken firm hold, it would
have been impossible for them to cx-
tingush. Again, some Of the fore
mos, champions of the public safety
lost their limbs, and many more OF
them their lives; and again, by the
mere force and pressure of numbers
acting with common purpose, the
match was eNtruded before much
harm had been done. opposed my
self 10 Il third renewal of the cxpcri-
mcnt, and succeeded in pursuading
my companions, although not without
difficulty, that enough had been done
for curiosity and natural history that
the truly mcrcifIl man was as merci-
ful to the smallest as to the largest of
Gods creatures and that we had no
right, in the mere wantOnness OF sci
entiiic observation, TO take away the
life which it was impossible for us to
| bcStuw.'