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African Memoranda. ttoyed by these ants ; several of the colonists being-'at different times awakened in the night, from their getting about them ; and one woman I thought would have absolutely gone mad, before she could be disengaged of a great number that entirely covered her body, and had so got into her long, and thick, head of hair, that it was an operation of some time, entirely to clear her of them. These insects, one would suppose, must have a very acute sense of smelling ; for if a piece of meat be dropped on the ground, and not one of them is to be seen, it would in a very short time be surrounded by them, and quickly devoured and carried away. We therefore used to place pieces about as traps, and when a great number were collected about them, they were destroyed by throwing hot coals upon them. At first we attempted it by pouring on them boiling water ; but after lying, to all appearance dead, for about half an hour, they would get up and run away. They generally march in countless millions, and I have frequently watched their progress, like a stream of black ink, about two inches broad, for many hundred yards to gether. Sometimes they would go under ground, without any apparent necessity for so doing, and appear above it again at a short distance ; and this would sometimes be frequently repeated, but always with uniform pace and in the most perfect order; at others they would continue the whole time that I watched them above ground; and at others again, after they had once entered the ground I was not able to trace their quitting it again. What struck me as the most remarkable circumstance in the march of these ants was, that at certain intervals, probably four or five inches on either side, in their line, there were larger ants always stationary, always with their heads towards the line of march, and always with their forceps wide open : these senti- 3a 2 363