Morning journal and courier., 1884-06-30

1 10 Df. WeDD, or bOSbO0, tO OE. Alo46uOoE Mckenzie, of Cambridge, former pastors of 1 the church, and to the Rev. Arthur Skeele, | it's present pastor although these gentlemen
 may not thank me fer diverting stream of
 letters and inquiries from myself upon l them. JAMES Fl. EcoB. Albany, N. Y, June Is, 1884.
 Am Ants Reasoning Power.
 of ever any one says to you that an ant can't think and reason, and form plans and
 carry them out, as well as any human being, just send him to me, and I'll tell him what
 saw one do this very afternoon. If that don't l convince him, what he thinks on any subject
 can be of no consequence whatever" said | the naturalist to a New York Sun reporter;
 ''but for fear I may not be within reach
 when such person expresses his doubts to you about the reasoning intelligence of the
 ant, I'll tell you what it was saw. and then you can settle him with it yourself.
 "I was at High Bridge this afternoon, and wandered up in the wooded hill beyond the tower and lay down in the shade Presently my attention was attracted by the struggles of short but fat caterpillar in web some
 designing spider had spun, and which spread it's gossamer meshes between two small
 shrubs, to the branches of each of which it was fastened by number of those almost in- visible guy ropes which the marvellous enc
 gineering instinct of the spider teaches it ar-
 necessary fer the safe anchorage of it's web.
 The bottom of the siIken trap was about
 three inches from. the ground, to which it
 vas also secured by three guys. The cater
 pillars struggles were all in vain, and present.
 ly it resigned itself to it's fate, and lay per
 fectly motionless in the web.
 Extending upward from the spiders web
 to the lower branch of young oak tree, at
 least five feet immediately above it, ran two
 silken strands. They were much larger than
 the strands of any other part of the web,
 and were doubtless intended by the spider
 for entrances or exits from his house, in case
 he had business up in the tree, which he evi-
 dently had, for there was similar web
 woven on one of it's branches higher up.
 The spider was not at home, and knowing
 that his meeting with the caterpillar when
 he returned would be attended with interest
 ing incidents, I resolved to wait until he
 came. lay there looking istlessly up at the
 leaves and branches and patches of sky that
 here and there showed through them when
 my eyes fell upon large wood ant moving
 down the trunk with that apparent uncer-
 sainty of thoroughfare characteristic of it's
 kind, but at the same time throwing into it's
 movements an earnestness and eagerness of
 purpose which left no doubt that it had i'm
 portant business of some kind to attend to.
 When the ant reached the foot of the tree it
 hurried through the grass directly toward
 the shrubs to which the spiders web was
 cured, spot some four feet from the trees
 trunk. When the ant reached the foot of the
 tree it hurried through the grass directly
 toward the shrubs to which the spiders web
 was secured, a spot some four feet from the
 trees trunk. When the ant reached the foot
 of the tree it hurried through the grass di
 rectly toward the shrubs to " hich the spiders
 web was secured, spot some four feet from the trees trunk. When the ant reached the web it stopped directly beneath it, and ap>
 parently gazed iutently at the fat worm i'm
 prisoned above. The inspection occupied only a second or two, and then the ant ran frantically to one of the ground anohorsges, and the next second was making it's way out to it on the web.
 "Arriving on the outer boundary of the spiders net the ant paused, reached out it's fore legs, and then, evidently suspecting that to enter there was to leave hope behind, rushed back to the ground again, and climbed one of the shrubs At the junction of every one of the silky anchorages the ant stopped to inspect it, and showed the intensi- ty of it's desire to possess the captive worm by making mid.air tour to the web on every connecting strand. Satisfying itself that it's object could not be attained from the one shrub, it descended to the ground and tried all the venues 60 the net on the other shrub. When it reached the top guy the ant paused It remained in one place for three or four seconds, turning it's body in various directions, as if surveying the surroundings and laying plans for future action. It was while thus looking over the field that the ant first discovered the long strands of web lead ing to the branch above. All its subsequent l movements demonstrated this beyond doubt. | It's first movement was to begin what I first | thought was 8 reinspection of the anchorages. h,,kh hafAr fho ont hc6 6auoandnH hn oh half way I saw that every guy rope above l had been separated from the shrub, and vas | floating loosely in the air. The ant was nip | ping each anchorage from it's fastenings. l After unmooring the web from the one | shrub, it hurried to the other and ascending l it in frantic haste, cut every guy on the side l well, and in a few seconds the web and its | coveted contents were swinging to and fro in the air, held aloft only by the two strong | strands from the branch above.
 That the ant was now at work on some systematic plan there could be no possible I doubt; but what advantage had it gained, asked myself, by thus letting the web swing 1 free, like hammock, at the sport of the wind? The ant soon answered the question. | It had no sooner cut the last silken mooring 1 of the web than it rushed back to the ground. | Once down, it started wildly for the tree from which it had come. The space between | it and the tree was soon covered and in le 3s | than five minutes from the time the ant left | the shrub it had reascended the tree and dis | appeared for moment from view. To say | that the manner and place of it's reappear- | ance were startling is but a feeble statement, | for when saw it again 1t had made its way | out on the branch to ore of the strands to | which the spiders web new hung suspended. | and proceeded at once to make the descent | of the gosaGmeF cable. It came down de- | Iiherately, head first, and with as much ease | as if the cable of spiders web was it's natur- | al line of travel. When the ant came to the | net it turned about on the strand fastened | its powerful hind legs in the edge, and then | began to pull itself upward on the cable with | it's fore feet.
 ''The ants plan was plain to me. Its | nest, of course, was somewhere in the tree, at the crotch of the first branch. l If it could by any possibility have taken the from the web on the ground, the | ant would have dragged it up the tree to it's | nest; but as that was not possible, and as it | had suddenly discovered the strands connect l ing the net with the branch 1t had seen at | once that they could be utilized, and the ant | drawn by them up into the tree. Was 1t in | stinct that told the ant that before this could | be done the web must be cut loose from its to the shrubs and groundf Or was it instinct that suggested the plan itself to the ant, and sent 1t scurrylng In all haste from the web it had set a4oat in the air to the tree, and up it, and along the branch to
 
 down to the net? No; it was genuine reason ing, and nothing short of it.
 F'Well, hand over hand went the ant, tug eing at the mass of web and weight of worm below. Its progress was slow, so slow that it had raised the web toward the tree less than Q foot in 10 minutes. Then the cater pillar seemed to awaken ali of sudden to the fact that some new danger threatened it, and it began to squirm and struggle anew. This caused the cable to sway to and fro, and the web to jump up and down in such man. ner that the ant, to save itself from being pulled from it's hold, loosened the web aud 1t fell back. This seemed to disconcert and dis courage the ant for 8 moment. It ran up and down the strand as if it didn't know ex- actly what to do. Suddenly it went up the cable and disappeared. Ia a short time I saw 1t coming downthe cable again, and most wonderful thing of all, down the cable came mother ant. as big and strong as the one that aad been trying to get along with the job alone. The first ant had simply gone back o the nest, explained the situation, and got companion to return and help it through with the work. And the two soon finished t. They fastened on to the net, and Work;, ;,no n unison the one pulling itself mn in ons |