orkers, each
carrying its segment of leaf vertically, the lower edge secured in its
mandibles, troop up and cast their burdens on the hillock; another relay
of laborers place the leaves in position, covering them with a layer of
earthy granules, which are brought one by one from the soil beneath.

The underground abodes of this wonderful ant are known to be very
extensive. The Rev. Hamlet Clark has related that the Sauba of Rio de
Janeiro, a species closely allied to ours, has excavated a tunnel under
the bed of the river Parahyba at a place where it is as broad as the
Thames at London Bridge. At the Magoary rice-mills, near Para, these
ants once pierced the embankment of a large reservoir; the great body
of water which it contained escaped before the damage could be repaired.
In the Botanic Gardens at Para an enterprising French gardener tried all
he could think of to extirpate the Sauba. With this object he made fires
over some of the main entrances to their colonies, and blew the fumes of
sulphur down the galleries by means of bellows. I saw the smoke issue
from a great number of outlets, one of which was seventy yards distant
from the place where the bellows were used. This shows how extensively
the underground galleries are ramified.

Besides injuring and destroying young trees by despoiling them of their
foliage, the Sauba ant is troublesome to the inhabitants from its habit
of plundering the stores of provisions in houses at night, for it is
even more active at night than in the daytime. At first I was inclined
to discredit the stories of their entering habitations and carrying off
grain by grain the farinha or mandioca meal, the bread of the poorer
classes of Brazil. At length, while residing at an Indian village on the
Tapajos, I had ample proof of the fact. One night my servant woke me
three or four times before sunrise by calling out that the rats were
robbing the farinha baskets. The article at that time was scarce and
dear. I got up, listened, and found the noise very unlike that made by
rats. So I took the light and went into the store-room, which was close
to my sleeping-place. I there found a broad column of Sauba ants,
consisting of thousands of individuals, as busy as possible, passing to
and fro between the door and my precious baskets. Most of those passing
outward were laden each with a grain of farinha, which was, in some
cases, larger and many times heavier than the bodies of the carriers.

Fari