The San Francisco call., 1897-07-18
THE STRONGEST CREATURE THAT LIVES

a few feet to the west of where the big
crowd was at work an ant who seemed
particularly proud of what he had accom-
plished. In his jaws was a piece of some
kind of root, about one and half inches
long. Mr.. Ant had hold of one end of it
and held it bolt upright-the hardest way
he could have chosen to carry it. But
perhaps that is the reason he seemed so
proud of what he had done.
OF course IL did not take the scientific
professors long to catch sight of him, and
in few moments there were four mag
nifying glasses focused on him. Ii was
plainly seen that he was holding the root
at one end, and that his jaws were deeply
imbedded IN it.
Over powders and chasms the ant
clim bed, apparently with little effort, and
always getting nearer and nearer the
storage cellar. Wnen he went through
the big crowd not one of them made an
effort to help him. They didn't even stop
10 admire him, but kept right along with
their seeds and the dead beetle. Once
while going over bowlder he slipped and
fell to the bottom, but never let go his
hold on the piece of root. After strug-
cling wildly he managed to get the root
pointed upward again, drew in a long
breath and started off.
At this stage of the game one of the
professors thought he was a good thing to
have and in few minutes Mr.. Ant and
lis piece of root were both inside of bot
tie that had been prepared for them. In
all the handling he received the ant still
clung to his load.
Arrived at the laboratory of one of the
professors, an interesting computation
was MADE. A very fine scale was brought
out, and preparations made 10 weigh the
ant and his load. The scale was so fine
that if piece of paper an inch square
were balanced on it an afterward marked
with lead pencil the amount of lead USED
could be accurately determined.
1t was found that the ant weighed forty
FIVE one-hundredths of a grain and that
the piece of root weighed two and eighty
five one-hundredths grains-or, to calcu-
late roughly, the ant weighed about half
grain and the piece of root about three
grains. The weight of the ant was a
surprise to the scientific men. 1t was
almost as solid as if it were made
OF some sort of metal. But the fact was
demonstrated that certa in of the Califor-
MIA black ants were capable of carrying a
load about six times their own weight.
BY carry it is meant to lift it and move it
with ease over obstacles, not simply to
drag it. AS far as science knows no other
creature in the world can do this.
Let us suppose that man should be-
come endowed with the same proportional
strength. What powerful creature he
would bel The average heavy weight
man weighs about It's pounds, and could
he carry six times his own weight he could
with ease move about with fireproof safe
weighing half ton on his shoulders. He
could go over 30 Mill Valley and pull up
young redwood tree, poke it up in the
air and walk off with it. No need of
derrick if that man was around. If
locomotive got off the track he would
simp put his shoulder under it and hoist
1t on again. But what else could he do?
Well, be could do lots of things. You
can figure them out yourself. And he
could do them simply because he was as
strong as the California black ant