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 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 by night than in the day-
time. 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, whilst residing at an Indian village on the Tapajos, I
had ample proof of the fact. One night my servant woke me three