Note 3 — CHAP. V. OF THE WARS OF ANTS, AND SOME OTHER PARTICULARS.

In perusing the travels of M. Malouet, in the forests of Guyana, we shall be speedily convinced that ants are not always, even to man, contemptible enemies. We have reason to be thankful that those of our own country are so innocent, and that nature has reduced them to such different dimensions. “I crossed the river,” he says, “with M. de Prefontaine, for the purpose of visiting the woods. In the midst of a savannah, extending beyond the visible horizon, I observed a hillock, which had the appearance of being the work of man. He told me that it was an ant-hill. ‘What!’ said I, ‘is that immense structure the work of an insignificant insect?’ He proposed to take me, not to the ant-hill, where we should have been devoured, but towards the route of the labourers. In drawing near the wood, we saw several columns of these insects; some were going to, others returning from, the forest, carrying pieces of leaves, different seeds, and roots. These Black Ants were of the largest species; but I had no desire to take a close survey of them. Their habitation, to which I approached within forty paces, appeared to be from fifteen to twenty feet high, and from thirty to forty broad; its form was that of a pyramid, truncated at about one-third of its height. From M. de Prefontaine, I learned, that when a native had the misfortune to meet one of these dreaded fortresses in turning up the earth, he was obliged to abandon his establishment, provided he could not lay a regular siege to it. This circumstance occurred to him, on his first encampment at Kouron; he then encamped at a little distance, but shortly perceived a hillock like that before us. He dug a circular trench, and filled it with a large quantity of dry wood, and when he had fired it in several places, he attacked the ant-hill with cannon. The shaking of the earth, and the bursting forth of the flames, left the enemy no means of escape, for they were obliged to traverse, in their retreat, the trench filled with matter in a state of combustion,” &c. &c.—A.