uths of their companions. In winter time, when the ants are
nearly torpid and do not require much nourishment, two or three ants
told off as foragers are sufficient to provide for the whole nest. We
all know how ants keep their herds in the shape of aphides, or ant
cows, which supply them with the sweet liquid they exude. I have often
observed an ant gently stroking the back of an aphide with its antennae
to coax it to give down its sweet fluid, much in the same way as a
dairy maid would induce a cow to give down its milk by a gentle
manipulation of its udders. Some species, principally the masons and
miners, remove their aphides to plants in the immediate vicinity of
their nest, or even introduce them into the ant home. In the interior
of most nests is also found the small blind beetle (_Claviger_)
glistening, and of a uniform red, its mouth of so singular a
conformation that it is incapable of feeding itself. The ants
carefully feed these poor dependent creatures, and in turn lick the
sweet liquid which they secrete and exude. These little _Coleoptera_
are only found in the nests of some species; when introduced into the
nests of others they excite great bewilderment, and, after having been
carefully turned over and examined, are killed in a short time as a
useless commodity. Another active species of _Coleoptera_, of the
family _Staphylini_, is also found in ant nests. I have discovered one
in the nest of _Formica rufa_ in the Jewish cemetery in Leadville.
Furnished with wings, it does not remain in the nest, but is forced to
return thither by the strange incapacity to feed itself. Like the
_Claviger_, it repays its kind nurses by the sweet liquid it exudes,
and which is retained by a tuft of hair on either side of the abdomen
beneath the wings, which the creature lifts in order that the ant may
get at its honeyed recompense. Such mutual services between creatures
in no way allied is a most curious fact in the animal world.--_Popular
Science News._

* * * * *

A GEM-BEARING GRANITE VEIN IN WESTERN CONNECTICUT.

By L.P. GRATACAP.

In the county of Litchfield, Conn., in the midst of some of the most
attractive hill country of that region, a very striking mineral
fissure has been opened by Mr. S.L. Wilson, which, in both its
scientific and commercial aspects, is equally important and
interesting. It is a broad crevice, widened at the point of excavation
into something like a p