Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1872-11-29


as shown amongst them,A is difficult in
deed to define. On one occasion he
watched them dragging the wing of a
coekchafer, into their nest. The opening
was too SMALL and the workers pulled
down part of the wall Some pushed at
it from without, Some dragged it from
within. Still the magnificent beam,
which was probably intended to make a
whole ceiling, could not be got in: they
I left it,increased the size of the opening
| and the wing was at last swallowed up,
though probably half dozen interior
partitions must have been thrown down
before 1t reached its proper place; after
this the door was built up again. Among
monkeys, nearest in structure to man,
I no fact has been observed marking delib-
Grafton and judgment in common to such
a degree"
1t is battling to think how entirely we
are outside such intelligent and advanced
organizations as these. We cannot guess
attheir thoughts and feelings; their ex-
ternal habits are even unintelligible to us.
We seem not to have point whereat to
touch. To-day they were quite uncon-
scious of my existence; perhaps I was
too big to be seen; they took no more no.
-tice of me than of stone as long as re-
manned still; and if they stung me when
| interrupted their business, it was my
finger not me, which they attacked. A
short-sighted man., however, the other
a nest, was spit or shot at (whatever be
the en- CINE used to eject the formic acid)
for his pains; and was obliged to draw
back his eyes precipitately from the sharp,
stinging volley.g~ n CO.
They understand each other, it is said,
| by means of the antenne. No doubt,
touch, when sufficiently cultivated, even
in man, is an extraordinary medium of
communication as was seen in Laura
| Bridgeman, the blind, deaf mute; but one
would like to understand the ants finger
alphabet.
| The hand in man is considered mira
Gle of art; but the ant seems to use his
six feet indifferently, as prehensile organs,
| to hold, toipull, to lift, to drag, to cling.
The keenness of their smell appears to be
marvellous, so that not SO much as cock
roach can die in the corner of q dark
room but the enterprising portion of the
race living in India, who eat everything
| and go everywhere, cOntrive to find it
out and carry it away. +. b#F
But to us the most extraordinary Of
their qualities is the power of self. sacri-
flee, the almost moral elevation, whereby
the good Of the individual is given up to
that of the community. A line of ants
on their travels were once seen trying to
pass a little stream, which proved too
rapid for them to cross. At last they
hooked themselves on each to each, and
thus gradually made chain, which was
carried obliquely to the other shore by the
current. Many were drowned and lost in
the process; the foremost of the band
were often baffled, and knocked about in
the rushing water; but the floating bridge
was atlast complete; and the rest of the
army marched in safety upon the bodies
of their self-sacrifcing fellows. Could
any so-called reasoning men have done
better, or as we'll? Our pontoons are not
made of living men.
In India, the precautions taken against
their voracity are many and Ingenious;
but the man is almost always baffled by
the insect. Wood, paper, cloth, pro-
visions, everything but metal, is con-
sumed; even the legs of tables are hol-
lowed out and left standing as empty
shells, which give way at a touch. In
one case, some preserves had been put in
closet, isolated from the wall, with feet
set in basins of water. The ants, how
ever were not to be so outWitted; they
crawled up to the ceiling, and let them
selves down, each ant hanging on to the
one above him, till the last link touched
the goal, when a stream of hungry appi-
cants ran down, and made short work of
the coveted treasure. Did those who
thus profted give any of the food to the
self-sacrifcing members of the living
chain, Il wonder? And what reward did
the patriot receive who held on to the
ceiling, and bore the weight of the rope
of ants?
No wonder that the emmett has been
held up as model Of wisdom and indus
try since men have ''made morals" at all;
that Solomon. declares the ants to be "a
people not strong, but exceedingly wise,"
who "prepare their meat in the summer,
that Milton talks with respect Of "the
parsimonious emmett, provident of flu
ture- kE Il 80
'sIn small room, large heart enclosed
But the highest praise he has received is
from Mr.. Darwin, who says that "the
size of the brain is closely connected with
higher mental powers; and the cerebral
ganglia of ants is of extraordinary com.
parative dimensions. STILL cubic con-
tents are no accurate gauge: there may
be extraordinary mental activity with eX-
tremely small absolute mass of nervous
matter" 1t seems as If the fineness of
the quality was more important even than
its quantity. "The wonderfully diversi-
fed instincts, mental powers, and affec-
tions of ants, exist with cerebral ganglia
not so large as the quarter of a small
pins head" A son of Mr.. Darwin sue
ceeded in the anatomy of an ants brain;
and his father observes, SIT is one of the
most marvellous atoms of matter in the
world-more so even than the brain of
man. f2 bABE& ID M
Yet such is the prodigal wealth of ma.
ture that millions on millions of these.
/ ''marvelous atoms" come into the world:
+ every summer, with apparently no other
end than to be eaten and crushed, and to
die in hundred different ways, after
their few days of life. Their use in the
world, as far as wencan fathom it, is as
scavengers; but, if we had been born ants,
we should probably consider this a
wretchedly perfunctory account of the be
all and end all of our existence.
The ant may not be able to see very
far; but one has apainful perception that
our own vision lis relatively not much
less narrow-Gocd Wogds.
James Gordon Bennett is the best
yachtsman and amateur sailor In the
world, being able to calculate latitude and
| longitude by all the methods, both solar
and astral, and to box the compass equal
to any Jack Tar of them all.
-One of the novel features of the Vi
emma Exposition will be very complete
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