The Relation of Science and Religion.pdf - Online Christian Library

RELATIONS OF ORGANISMS. 199of desolatioil and death, he found "a tree at ashort distance, about eighteen inches in diameter,to the height of four feet from the ground,with the adjacent plants and earth perfectlyblack with them." The most striking thing,however, was that the ants had made festoonsfrom the lower branches to the ground,formed in the following manner, as witnessedby Mr. Savage: " ant after ant coming downfroin above, extending their long limbs, andopening wide their jaws, gradually lengtheningout the living chain" until first it wasswaying to and fro, and ultimately fastenedto the ground, when others were ascendingand descending upon them, thus holding freeand ready communication with the lower andupper portions of this dense mass." In thissame manner these ants provide for the crossingof water when on the march. "Theymake a line or chain of one another, graduallyextending themselves by numbers acrosstill the opposite side is reached." * This isexactly similar to the manner in which soniemonkeys are known to construct a naturalbridge, only that the monkeys have the ad-* Nmeum of Natural History edited by Riehdson, D~llas, Cobbold,Baird, and White, vol. ii. p. 184.