Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-12-02
KING OF THE JUNGLE
NOTHING CAN WITHSTAND AN
ARMY OF ANTS.
Cleaned Out Camp and Stripped a
Huge Oak Tree Of Its
Foliage.
rrnm thc New York commercIal Advertiser.


wide throughout thousands upon thousands
of miles of unexpected wilderness in South
America nothing is feared more by man
or beast.
Before one may say that he has seen a
real ant army he must have seen the very
ground crawl. The Jet black soil of the
dusky virgin forest must be hidden COM
plately beneath a blanket of glistening.
hUstHng. little black beads, and the patter
of the myriads of feet must sound like the
rustic Of the early evening zephyr as 1t
drifts through the impenetrable roof of
green which has from time immemorial
kept Gods sunshine and the light out Of
the maze OF the tangled, bush-roped jungles
under the equator.
ut was such an army as this which de-
scanded early one morning on the Dieu Dis
pose camp of the White Water Mining Com
pany. 400 miles up the Saramacca river. in
Dutch Guiana, South America said min
ing engineer. The surprise came one
morning shortly before sunrise, and the
way 1t routed us and the way the army
cleaned out the camp and continued on its
march of conquest was the most wonderful
thing l have seen in twenty years of min
ing and big game hunting.
The camp was q very pretentious affair
built with a roof of sheet iron and on six
foot pillars to raise the floor off the ground
ard preclude malarial fevers. In the entire
country there not, and there probably
never will be. such another camp. for it's
floor space measured 30 by 100 feet, and
nothing that the fOrethought of man could
devise. short of an ant army attack, had
been omitted in the building.
Rescue of Don Pedro
I'VE were awakened out of deep slumber
one morning by the wild braying of Don
Pedro, the mascot jackass. Never before
had Don misbehaved himself, and all six
of us tumbled out of our hamnlocks, rifles
in hand, expecting to find the animals at
tackled by jaguar. Don was in the midst
of an ant army, acting as If he were crazy.
He had rolled on his back and was Writh-
ing in pain, fighting and kicking and biting
everywhere at once and emitting cries of
agony. We ran into the midst of the little
fighters and saved Don by the ears and
the tail the only two safe places to lay
hold on him. Then he was brushed clean
of the little pests.
THE army making bee-line for the
camp, and it became a race between and
the insects to see what could be saved. The
program was to store away what could be
stored by the only safe means possible and
then to vacate and let the visitors have the
place till they got tired. Sugar, butter
rice. meats and everything else eatable
were put on table, the four legs of which
were immersed in basins of water Then
We departed to await developments.
Outside the ground was literally alive
The entire clearing about the camp crawled
for hundred feet square, and out of the
jungle thickets the stream of ants contin-
ued steadily as If black river were flow
ing out of it. There was no danger or in
convenience in watching the army at work
So long as one did not step into the group
there would be no trouble, and we watched
the midgets from the side lines one ant
leading the uncountable ones, and the rest
following In solid mass.
Following the Leader.
up one of the posts headed the leader
and up the post followed those behind, dis
appearing in the cracks and crevices be-
tween the weather boards. Then every up
right became alive with the little pirates
Into the place they went, spreading every
where, under the roof, on the rafters, on
the walls. till it made one dizzy to see the
black. crawling mass.
Wait till you see a centipede fight said
one of the native foremen. and barely had
he said so than blue streak shot with the
speed of lightning down wall from hid
ing spot under the roof. The centipede
landed in the middle of the floor, and it
looked as If he were going to dash clear of
the tormentors, when he made a fatal stop
that doomed him, it dooms everything
else that fails to run clear of the attacking
force before fighting the ones fastened in
the body.
Around and around spun the poisonous
insect, thrashing the floor wildly in an effort
10 squash the ttacking party. Afterward
we found thousands of dead ants on the
spot OF the fight, but quick as some fell
other took their places, and the centipede
was literally covered with ants each one
fastening teeth deeply into him For all
of fifteen minutes the fight continued.
Then the struggles of the centipede became
weaker and weaker till gradually he sank
TO quiet in sheer exhaustion, to be eaten
alive. Not a vestige of the centipede re-
manned by the time the ants were finished
with him. and this clearing-out process
took place IN several other spots in the
camp. one Of the victims being tarantula
and another a rat.
Cleaning Out the Camp.
Not till noon was the army finished. At
that time the camp presented a wonderful
sight from the outside. High as an ordi-
nary barn. every side and the roof of the
building, formerly light brown, were a
mass of glistening black, as II painted with
jet dripping under the fierce rays of the
sun. Gradually as it had come the army
proceeded about it's business. Outside of
the provisions rescued on the fortified table
everything was cleared out of the camp
clean as whistle. A great bunch OF
bananas that had hung in a corner had
disappeared all but the bare StumpS. But
within the building there was not a thing
of life left. Not fly. not spider, not
even a rival ant, was to be found in the
place, and the floor eaten clean and
clear. as if it had been swept and scrubbed.
But the army was not finished with It's
destruction in our immediate neighborhood.
A huge tree-larger than the biggest oak l
have ever seen anywhere-Was stripped of
its foliage in less than an hour. The tree
was live feet In diameter, and the way the
IttLe ones tackled IL showed both sense and
system. Up one side they went, crawling
and pushing. and presently down the other
side OF the trunk came the vanguard. while
the army stood backed to a standstin to
give the leaders a chance to mount the
space too narrow TO accommodate the sn-
tire number at once. 1t was as If a human
army had suddenly come to a halt at
bridge to give those ahead a chance to
cross
AS each ant came down from above he
carried small triangular piece of leaf,
half as large thumb nail. Each laborer
held the leaf on his back with two tiny
1orefeet, and plodded along with incredible
swiftuess into the jungle. We never found
what they did with the leaves"
Can This Dog Count2
Er,yu he Providence