astonishing. It appears, from the WestIndian journals, that this species of ant first made its appearance in Grenada, about seventy-eight years ago, on a sugar plantation at Petit Havre, a bay five or six miles from the town of St. George. From thence they contrived to extend themselves on all sides for several years, destroying, in succession, every sugar plantation between St. George and St. John's, a space of about twelve miles; and at the same time colonies of them began to be observed in other parts of the island. All attempts of the planters to put a stop to the ravages of these insects having been found ineffectual, an act was passed by the legislature, by which the discoverer of any practicable method of destroying them, so as to permit the cultivation of the sugar cane, as formerly, was entitled to twenty thousand pounds, to be paid from the public treasury of the island. Many were the candidates on this occasion, but very far were any of them from having any just claim; considerable sums of money were however granted, in consideration of the trouble and expense incurred in making the experiments. The numbers of those ants were incredible. The roads have been seen covered with them for miles together; and so crowded were they in many places, that the prints of the horses' feet would appear for a minute or two, until the spaces made by them were again filled up by the surrounding multitude of ants. All other species of ants, although numerous in their colonies, are nevertheless circumscribed and confined to a small spot in comparison with the vast spaces occupied by the sugar ants, we may say as a mole-hill is to a mountain! Corrosive sublimate and arsenic, mixed with animal substance, were greedily devoured by them. Myriads were indeed thus destroyed, and the more readily as they were, by these applications, rendered so furious as to destroy each other! Yet it was found that these poisons could not be laid in sufficient quantities even to give the hundred thousandth part of them a taste.

The use of fire afforded a greater probability of success. When wood was burnt to the state of charcoal, without flame, and was then immediately taken from the fire, and laid in their way, they crowded to it in such astonishing numbers as soon to extinguish it, although by the destruction of thousands of them. Holes were therefore dug at proper distances apart, and a fire made in each of them. Prodigious quantities perished in this way; for the places of those fires, when extinguished, appeared in the shape of molehills, from the numbers of dead bodies of the ants heaped on them; nevertheless, the ants soon appeared again as numerous as

ever.

This calamity, which resisted so long all the efforts of the planters, was at length re

moved by another; which, however ruinous to the other islands in the West-Indies in other respects, was, to Grenada in particular, a very great blessing; namely, the hurricane in 1780. Without this, it is probable that the cultivation of the sugar-cane, in the most valuable parts of that island, must have in a great measure been thrown aside, at least for some time.

The devastations made by the various species of ants in this country are of great magnitude; but are nothing in comparison to the ravages made by those of warmer climates. I have seen large tracts of ground in the neighbourhood of London completely excavated by these insects, and particularly in Southgate wood, the whole of which is one vast colony of ants; their nests and subterraneous passages extending throughout the whole of the wood; the surface of the ground is so overrun with them, that you cannot stir a foot without treading on numbers.

In all the excursions the ants make, they have always some object in view; and they very seldom return to the nest without either themselves bearing something, or carrying the news that something of use has been discovered, and in which joint assistance is necessary. If information is brought, for instance, that a piece of sugar, or bread, or any kind of fruit, has been discovered, even in the highest story of a house, they range themselves in a line, and follow their leader to the spot; of this the following is a remarkable instance, related by Dr. Franklin, Believing that these little creatures had some means of communicating their thoughts or desires to one another, he tried several experiments with them, all of which tended to confirm his opinion; but one seemed more conclusive than the rest. He put a small earthen pot, containing some treacle, into a closet, into which a number of ants got and devoured the treacle very quietly. But, on observing this, he shook them out, and tied the pot with a thin string to a nail, which he had fastened into the ceiling; so that it hung down by it. A single ant, by chance, remained in the pot; this ant eat till it was satisfied; but when it wanted to get off, it could not for some time find a way out. ran about the bottom of the pot, but in vain ; at last it found, after many attempts, the way to the ceiling, by going along the string. After it was come there, it ran to the wall, and from thence to the ground. It had scarcely been away half an hour, when a great swarm of ants came out, got up to the ceiling, and crept along the string to the pot, and began to eat again. This they continued doing till the treacle was all eaten in the mean time, one swarm running down the string, and the other up it.

It

We are told that a very grateful acid (the formic acid) is to be obtained from ants by

distillation; and we find instances recorded of persons being fond of eating them alive. As Mr. Consett was walking with a young gentleman in a wood near Gottenburgh, in Sweden, he observed him sit down on an ant-hill, and, with a great degree of pleasure, devour these insects, first nipping off their heads and wings. Their flavour, according to his account, was an acid, somewhat resembling, though much more agreeable than that of a lemon. The late Mr. Tuther, a celebrated optician in Holborn, assured me that he had frequently eaten them in order to allay his thirst when in the woods. There is a highly interesting work on the habits of the ants, by Huber, in which he describes their wars, buildings or architecture, their affection towards their companions; and, in fact, the general economy of these insects, which he narrates very fully, is really wonderful, particularly those of some species in slave making, which is carried on to a great extent in the following manner. The war ants march out in large armies, and give battle to a neighbouring city, composed of the working ants; and having made a breach in the walls, rush in and carry off the eggs and larva to their own nests, which they watch, nourish, and rear to maturity with the same care as they take of their own offspring; and thus they become, in process of time, inmates in the same society with those who had originally kidnapped them, and towards whom, had they been brought up at home, they would have cherished an instinctive and inveterate hatred. The office of these slaves is to take care of the city when the war ants go out again on their marauding adventures, to get a fresh supply of eggs and larva for future slaves; and also to repair and fortify the city; and, in times of peace, to wait on their masters, who do not work, but live as gentlemen soldiers!

We have reason to be thankful for the limited size of these insects in our own country. In the warmer climates they are of a gigantic size compared with ours; many species are full an inch and a half long, as may be seen in the cabinets at the British Museum. The depredations of these are dreadful; sheep and other large animals are frequently attacked by them, and so expert are they in their operations, that in the course of a night the animals are completely devoured, and nothing left except their skeletons. M. Malouet, in his travels through the forests of Guiana, saw, on a plain, an ant's nest, from fifteen to twenty feet high, on a basis of thirty or forty feet. The person who accompanied him informed him they could not approach it without being devoured, the ants being numerous beyond calculation, more than an inch in length, and furnished with powerful jaws and stings. That when any new settlers, in clearing the country, met

with these nests, they were obliged to abandon the spot, unless they could muster a sufficient force to lay regular siege to the enemy; this was done by digging a trench at a distance from the nest, and all round it; this trench is filled with dry wood, to the whole of which they set fire at the same time, by lighting it at different parts; while the entrenchments are blazing, the edifice is fired at by cannon; and the ants being thus dispersed, in passing through the flames perish.

It is a well known fact, that some species of these large ants will enter the dwellings of the inhabitants in such numbers, as to be capable of devouring the whole of the inmates; when a circumstance of that kind takes place, the dwelling is deserted, and left to the mercy of the invaders, and the proprietors are obliged to form a temporary dwelling in a distant part. When the visitation ants have devoured every thing eatable within the house, they quit it, and the family returns. Should the ants visit them in the night, they are obliged to quit, without having time to put on any covering.

Captain Adams, in his remarks on the coast of Guinea, mentions that a cow was attacked by these insects, and the whole carcase stripped to the bone in a single night; he also relates, that Mr. Absons, the governor of the English fort at Grewhi, in Dahony, was reduced to debility by fever, so as to be incapable of calling for help, when he was attacked by the ants while in bed, and which would have devoured him before morning; but, very fortunately, one of his domestics awoke, and, by great exertions, saved him from their depredations.

The

The vast size of the nests constructed by these insects, in various parts of the globe, is astonishing. Captain Stedman has seen anthills, in Surinam, six feet high, and at least one hundred feet in circumference. sting from these ants caused a whole company of his soldiers to start and jump about as if scalded with boiling water, and the pain caused by their bite was equally intolerable!

But the most surprising of these insects are the termites or white ants, whose history is given by Mr. Smeathman, in a work published by him, and read at a meeting of the Royal Society, February 15, 1781. It appears that their habitations are of an amazing magnitude; that they frequently exceed twelve feet in height, and are so firmly cemented, as to bear the pressure of several men at the same time. It often happens that, whilst a herd of wild cattle are quietly grazing below, one of their body is stationed on them as a centinel, to give timely notice of approaching danger. The termites begin constructing their habitations by raising, at little distances from each other, several turrets of compact clay in the shape of sugar roaves, upon these they erect others, those in the centre running up to the greatest height;

established themselves in it, and devoured most of the wood-work, leaving little besides the metal and glasses.

It was even asserted, in a paragraph in The Morning Herald, dated December 31, 1814, that the superb residence of the Governor General at Calcutta, which had cost the East India Company such immense sums, was rapidly going to decay, in consequence of the attacks of these insects. Mr. Smeathman observes, that frequently the main timbers which support a building will be so completely excavated, as to leave scarce any thing but the shell; so that, although the supporting timbers appear whole and firm, yet the least pressure against them would occasion the whole building to fall to the ground!

Mr. Smeathman divides these insects into three orders. First, The working insects, or labourers. Second, The fighters, or soldiers. Third, The winged or perfect insects, which are male and female, and capable of multiplying the species, these last he calls the nobility and gentry, because they neither labour nor fight. The different functions of the labourers and soldiers, or the civil and military establishments, in a community of white ants, are illustrated by Mr. Smeathman in an attempt to examine their nests or city. On making a breach in any part of this structure, with a hoe or pickaxe, a soldier immediately appears, and walks about the breach, as if to see whether the enemy is gone, or to examine whence the attack proceeds. In a short time he is followed by two or three others, and soon afterwards by a numerous body, who rush out as fast as the breach will permit them, their numbers increasing, as long as any one continues to batter the building. During this time they are in the utmost bustle and agitation, some being employed in beating with their forceps upon the building, so as to make a noise which may be heard at three or four feet distance. On ceasing to disturb them, the soldiers retire, and are succeeded by the labourers, who hasten, in various directions, towards the breach, each with a burden of mortar in his mouth, ready tempered. Though there are millions of them, they never stop or embarrass each other, and a wall gradually arises to fill up the chasm. A soldier attends every six hundred or a thousand of the labourers, seemingly as a director of the works; for he never touches the mortar, either to lift or carry it. One in particular, places himself close to the wall under repair, and frequently makes the above mentioned noise, which is instantly answered by a loud hiss from all the labourers within the dome; and at every such signal, they evidently redouble their pace, and work as fast again. The work being completed, a renewal of the attack constantly produces the

same effects. The soldiers again rush out, and then retreat, and are followed by the labourers loaded with mortar, and as active and as diligent as before.

Thus the pleasure of seeing them come out to fight or work alternately, Mr. Smeathman observes, may be obtained as often as curiosity excites, or time permits; and it will certainly be found, that one order never attempts to fight, nor the other to work, let the emergency be ever so great. The obstinacy of the soldiers is remarkable: they fight to the very last, disputing every inch of ground so well, as often to drive away the negroes, who are without shoes, and make white people bleed plentifully through their stockings.

It is exceedingly difficult to explore the interior part of a nest or hill. The apartments which surround the royal chamber and the nurseries, and indeed the whole fabric, have such a dependence on each other, that the breaking of one arch generally pulls down two or three.

Another great obstacle is the obstinacy of the soldiers, as above stated, neither can a building be let to stand so as to get a view of the interior parts without interruption; for while the soldiers are defending the outworks, the labourers keep barricading all the way, stopping up the different galleries and passages which lead to the various apartments, particularly the royal chamber, all the entrances to which they fill up so artfully, as not to let it be distinguished while it remains moist; and, externally, it has no other appearance than that of a shapeless lump of clay. It is however easily found, from its situation with respect to the other parts of the building, and by the crowds of labourers and soldiers which surround it, who show their loyalty and fidelity by dying under its walls.

These insects, according to Mr. Smeathman, construct works which surpass those of the bees, wasps, and other insects, as much at least as those of the most polished European nations excel those of the least cultivated savages. Even with regard to man, his greatest work, the boasted pyramids, falls comparatively far short, even in size alone, to the structures raised by these insects. The labourers among them, employed in these services, are not a quarter of an inch in length; but the structures which they erect rise, as has already been observed, to the height of ten or twelve feet, and upwards, above the surface of the earth. Supposing the height of a man to be six feet, this author calculates that the buildings of these insects may be considered, relatively to their size and that of man, as being raised to nearly five times the height of the greatest of the Egyptian pyramids; that is, corresponding with considerably more than half a

construction.

MY PUBLIC.

(From the New Monthly Magazine.)

"Tout le monde méprise les harangères; cependant, qui oseroit risquer de les offenser, en traversant la halle?"-CHAMPFORT.

46

FORMERLY, when "My Public" was rarely addressed, save from a tub, or from the footlights of the stage, it was a modest wellbehaved sort of public enough; and, except now and then a little rioting at a Jew-bill, or the burning of a popish chapel or so, it kept the peace with his Majesty's lieges as a discreet public should do. But now that it has grown into consideration, that it has become a power," and begins to go for something in congresses and cabinet meetings, it has become, like its brother irresponsible aristocrats, a little capricious and tyrannical. Like Mrs. Quickly," it is neither fish nor flesh; no man knows where to have it;" while it is so puffed up with perpetual eulogies, and with the constant deference and mouth-honour with which it is treated, that there is nothing of which it does not believe itself capable. "The public," says Dumont, "is a tribunal worth more than all the other tribunals put together;" and he does not seem singular in his opinion if we appeal to facts. If an actress quarrels with her part, or is angry that the manager is not her professed admirer, she files her plea before the public in the columns of the Times, or the Morning Chronicle. If an author gets a smart hit from the reviews, he straightway calls on the editors to answer interrogatories before the same authorities. Does a gentleman get his nose pulled, or horsewhip waved over his shoulders, he forthwith fires-a letter to the public in all the papers; and if a swindler is dissatisfied with the law, or the commentaries of Sir Richard and his brother beaks, he without loss of time entreats the public to suspend its judgment till the day of trial. Every page of the advertisements of a journal teems with a villanous cajolery of "My Public." It is, forsooth, a humane public, a charitable public, a discriminating and judicious public, and above all, a religious public; and the poor dupe takes all this for granted, and is ready to go to loggerheads with any one who presumes to think for himself, and does not bow the knee before

its arrogated infallibility. That so discreet a writer as the commentator on Bentham should fall into this error, at first sight surprised me; but to say of the tribunal of public opinion, that "it is worth all the other tribunals put together," is no such excessive eulogy. It may come to a decision sooner than the Court of Chancery, without being very expeditious; it may proceed upon principles more nearly approaching to common sense, than the maxims of our courts of law, without being hyperlogical; and it may be more consistent and rational than the 66. great unpaid," without being justly set down for a conjuror. But I am more inclined to be of opinion that Dumont was merely sarcastic; and that he meant slily to infer that public opinion possesses accumulatively all the errors and absurdities which are boasted of, as the peculiar excellencies of our judicial system. To this conclusion I am the rather led, inasmuch as the whole paragraph has an ironical air. "Though susceptible of error (continues the acute writer), this tribunal is incorruptible. It tends perpetually to instruct itself; and it contains all the wisdom and justice of the nation." Now, as to the incorruptibility of the public, I don't know with what face such a plea can be advanced in favour of a community whose political system is so based in corruption, that if the constitution were in reality what it is in theory-if the actions of all its wheels and levers were not perverted and disturbed by the grossest abuses, the machine would confessedly come to a stand-still in an hour. Look, in the name of all that is good, at the doctrine which is preached in the high places

look at the individuals, who, on the bench, in the pulpit, in the senate, and from the press, set the tone of public opinion, and prompt the judgments of this boasted tribunal; and say, if you can, that the genius of peculation is not the lord of the ascendant. But if it be asserted, that Dumont was not thinking of Armata when he wrote, I answer that the public of that country is at least as good as that of most other communities; and that there is no civilized community in which the greatest good of the greatest number is the object of its professed teachers. That "My Public" has a tendency to selfinstruction, I admit that is to say, it comes at the truth when every body knows it, and not before; i. e. after the wise and the learned have for centuries been endeavouring to beat into its noddle, that twice two make four; and have been fined, and imprisoned, and spit upon, and burned for their pains. Taken separately, there is scarcely one man in ten thousand of the aggregate which constitutes a public, whose opinion a person of sense would take on the boiling of a potatoe; if indeed, on being closely pressed, they were found to have any opinion they could fairly call their own. How then can the accumu