The Brunswick news. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 1901-1903, 1902-12-14
NE .. the mosL e1traoraInary

an army of ants. Far and
wide, throughout thousands
upon thousands OF miles OF unexplered
Wilderness in South America, nothir%
is feared more by man OF beast
Before one may say that he has seen
q real ant army, he must have seen
the very ground crawl. The jet black
soil of the dusky virgin forest must be
hidden completely beneath a blanket
of glistening, hustling, little black
beads. and the patter of the myriads
of feet must sound like the rustic of
the early evening zephyr as it 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, bushroped
jungles under the equator.
ut was such an army as this which
descended early one morning on the
Dleu Dispose camp of the Mite Water
Mining Company, 400 miles up the
Saramacca River, in Dutch Guinea,
South America" said a mining engi-
neer. THE surprise came early one
morning shortly before sunrise, and the
way it 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 mining and big game hunt
ing.
The camp was very pretentous
affair-built with a roof of sheet iron,
and on six-foot pillars to raise the
floor from eff the ground and preclude
malarial fevers. In the entire country
there was not and there probably never
win be such another camp for its floor
space measured 50x100 feet. and moth
ing that the forethought OF man could
devise, short of an ant army attack,
had been omitted in the building.
I'VE were awakened out of deep
slumber one morning by the wild bray
ing of Don Pedro, the mascot jackass.
Don had never before misbehayed him
self, and all six Of us tumbled out OF
our hammocks, rifles at hand, expect
ing to find the animal attacked by q
jaguar. Don was in the midst Of an
ant army, acting as Il he was crazy.
He had rolled on his back and was
writhing 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 tail, the
only two safe places TO lay hold or
him. Then he was brushed clean Of
the little pests
THE army was making a Decline
for the camp, and it became a race be-
tween us and the insects to see what
could be saved. The program was 10
store away what could be stored by
the only safe means possible, and then
to vaeate and let The little visitors have
the place till they got tired. Sugar,
/ butter. rice meats aud everything else
was put on table, tho 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 erawled for a hundred feet
square. and out Of the Jungle thicket
/ the stream OF ants continued steadily
as il a black river We're flooding out
Of 1t. There was no danger or neon
yenlence in watching the army at
work. So long as one did not step into
I the group there would be no trouble,
and we watched the midgets from the
sidelines, one ant leading the uncount-
] able ones and the rest following in q
solid mass
up one of the posts headed tllp
4 leader and up the post followed those
\ behind, disappearing in the cracks and
crevices between The weather boards.
Then every upright became alive wifi
the little pirates. In the place they
went, spreading everywhere. under the
! roof, on the rafters on the walls, till II
made one dizzy to see the black. crawl
ing mass
tVaitstlil you see centipedc fight,
said one at the native foremen, and
barely had he said 50 than blue
streak shot with the speed of light
ming down d wall from hiding spot
under the roof. The centipede landed
in the centre Of the floor and it looked
as If he were going to dash clear Of the
tormentors when he made the fatal
stop that doomed him, as it dooms
J, everything else that fails TO run clear
Of the attacking force before fighting
the ones fastened in the body.
Around and around spun the poison
Gus insect thrashing the floor wildly III
an effort to squash the attacking party
Afterwards we found thousands Of
dead ants on the spot of the fight but
quick as some fell others took theil
places, and the centipcde was literally
covered with ants, each one fastening
teeth deeply into him. For all of fit
teen minutes the fight continued. Ther
the struggles Of the centipede beeamt
weaker and weaker till gradually he
sank to quiet in sheer exhaustion, Il
be eaten alive Not a vestige Of the
ceniipede remained by the time thf
ants were finished with him, and this
clearing out process took place IN sew
eral other spots in the camp, one Of
the victims being tarantalua and an
other a rat.
Not till noon was the army finished