The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 9, 1897, Page 26

NETURALIST * ARG 244 While our Eastern friends are hailing | the advent of spring we dweilers by the Golden Gate are really in the full tide of summer. albeit May is scarcely upon us. The bloom 1s on the grass, the grain is in the straw, and the evening air is vibratile with the piping of the little treetond, a characteristic summer sound. A surer in- | dication yet that summer is with us are | the innumerabie ant-heaps I find in the | footpaths as I go about the hills. To me there is no more interesting creature in nature than this littie black insect we see | continually going to and fro upon the earth. One may well “‘consider ber ways and be wise,’ but the wisdom will consist largely in the avoidance of imitating | them. There is something mlrvelous! sbout the industry of thess creatures. | They are all but tireless, their ingenuity | is almost incredible, and the best of it is | that not one of them toils for self, but each works for ail the others, and the en- ergy of all is concentrated upon the safety and well-being of the young of the race. For these are laid outaud builded the | wonderful subterranean cities; for these are the labyrinthian storehouses, the boards of grain and wealth of cattle, and | for these a large number of their elders | are tolled off as especial nurses and care- | takers. | The ants know a gooa many things that | human beings would like to find out.“ They are expert architects, engineers and builders. They know how to store grain r ground, and yet keep it from grow- | ing, while we cannot even keep potatoss and onions from sprouting in our vegetable | bins, or our wheat from rotting and | i 4 7 swelling in the holds of our ships. What do they do to it, these tiny black magi- cians, that the grain will lie in their earthy granaries and kecp sweet and wholesome? Destroy the ants in one of the little pathway villages, and in a short time this grain will sprout and grow, but while they are alive and in charge of it they can keep it from doing this, and our vaunted human reason cannot tell us bow. - The little red ants make war upon the big black ones, carry them off into captivity and compel them to do all their work. Red and black alike capture the little green aphides that infest our rose bushes and keep them underground as cattle, for the sake of the sweet drops of moisture secreted by these insects. They take excellent csre of them and “milk’” them daily. They are wise, too, in the accumulation of wealtis, and in guarding it from depredation, but, when ali’s said | and done, their industry is a terrible sort of thing that would be deadly to the buman race. The desire of much gain has made them blind. Originally winged, sesing creatures, they crawled upon the earth, using their wings so little that graduslly they lost these organs. Only & few retain them, the true females and the males, and the only for a brief season, in the ma ing time, when they essay a short nuptial flight, and after that the males die, the females lose their wings | and retire to the underground citles for the balance of their lives. It is probable that these winged ants retain some power of sight, but the workers are blind. They used their eyes to no better purpose than they did their wings, and in time they 2ot lost them. You can prove their sightle: ness at any time by drawing with the point of a lead pencil, or with a little stick, a shaliow trench across the trail of a line of ants as they journey to and from their nast. The trench may be but a faint depressed line, but the ants will wander helplessly along it until one happens to get across and strikes the trail on the other side. Then, one after another, all will find the new route and travel in it though it may lose them yards out of the | direct line. Sometimes they do not find the way at all, but wander about aimless and abject, until they disperse to perish within a few inches of home. Iwatched an ant not long ago as it toilea along bearing a little stick twice its own length. It tuzged and pushed, trav- eling now forward, now backward, pro- gressing slowly to the entrance of the ant heap. Presently a fellow-worker happened along and stumbling against the free end | of the little stick seized hold upon it, as I supposed, to help. Butthe game of cross- | purposes that followed was as Interesting as it was senseless. The two creatures pulled in opposite directions, rolling over, whirling round, backing and going for- ward, but getting further and further from home. At last one of them lost its | hold and feeling along the stick probably to obtain a better grasp upon it came sud- denly in contact with the other toiler. There was a great rubbing together of antennz, a mutual recognition, appar- antly, and then one went off and left the other to bear the burden alone. It seenred quite evident that each had until then been unaware of the other’s presence and | labors. Before the stick was at lastsafe within the entrance this little comedy was | repeated and nearly a minute after it dis- appeared it was thrown suddenly and vio- lently out, only to pe dragged in again a little later. The orioles came last week and the trees are abiaze with their beautiful coloring and melodious with their full, rich song. These are usually the last of our migratory birds to arrive. They belong to summer and the season of ripening seeds. It wasa warm, beautiful morning when they made their appearance and ‘awoke me in the dewy aours with their clear melody. The bi:ds, in migrating, travel at night, and in this season’ of the year the bird lover who goes afield at 5 o’clock in the morn- ing is pretty certain io be greeted by some newcomer. Sometimes the visitors tarry but aday. Isaw two birds one morning last week that I am pretty certain were Blackburnian warblers, but they were doubtless on their way to some other sum- mer residence, for they tarried with me butaday. Tue bluebirds have not here- tofore, to my knowledge, nested in this locality, but a flock stopped over for a day a fortnight ago, and, taking a fancy to my bird boxes, seem to have settled down for the summer. In doing this they had an encounter with the English sparrows and completely routea these ageressive little intruders. The English sparrow, in rural scenes, is by no means the unpleasant, quarrelsome creature he in the city. Urban ociations have s deteriorating effect upon him. .Even his Voice grows harsher and more querulous. Isawa female biuebird investigatinga Sparrow’s nest the other day, whether with predatory intent I could not deter- mine. The entrance to the nest was through a emall crack in the sheathing of the house near the eaves. I knew that mother sparrow was on the nest, for I had seen her go in but a minute before, and the head of that sparrow household t upon the eavetrough and watched the visitor, but made no move in her direc- tion. The bluebird clung to the edge of the opening and peered curiously down into the nest, but the sparrow hen made no sign either of welcome or repulsion. After a moment’s inspection the visitor flew away, but returned again and again, sometimes perching, sometimes hovering with rapidly vibrating wings opposite the opening, which seemed to bave a strange fascination for her. Her mate sat upon the ridgepole of the house watching her over his shoulder, after the manner of these birds, and it was perhaps his pres- ence that kept the cock-sparrow quies- cent, but the performance was a curious one. A single pair of snowbirds have lingered this summer and are evidently building hereabouts, though all their whilom com- panions have departed to the mountains, whither these bigds usually repair in nest- ing time. The male bird has found his voice and sitting upon a iow twig delivers himself from time to time of a low, twit- tering trill that, judging from her rapt ANCIENT AND MODERN ATHENS COMPARED. Greece is a subject of perennial interest, st now while the world is watching her plucky but useless strugzle against | her one-time master it is with a strong | revival of concern in her past and fature that one glances again through the pages of her history. It was recorded of the he- roic struggle in the twenties of this cen- t tion against the O:tomans, that the people of Europe could not disconnect in their | minds the Hellenes of that date from the forever famous race who had taken such a high place in the lifting of man from bar- | through in deference to the philhellenism | barism, and in spite of the long lapse of | c ies and the large admixture of alien blood in the pecple that then fought | for liberty on Grecian soil the civil- ized world persisted in modern Greeks “the counterparts of those glorious beings who gave to Europe their ideals of intellectual of plastic ¥, end of postic truth.” The same feeling is alive to- day, and is immortal, The nume Greek is inseparably joined in men’s minds with the thought of greatness in letters, art and beroism, and the wor!d will continne to observe with sym- pathetic interest what sort of effect the forces of heredi- ty. atevism and the stimolus of glorious traditions will have in the progressive ev- olution of that race which has inherited the land and the lan- guage of the ancient Hellenes. Among a few of the most interesting things in the records of modern Greece is the judgment ot Leo- pold, the first King of the liberated country, upon tne su- preme importance of the possession of the island of Crete to the hopes of the Hellenes for a safe and progressive na- tional existence. Becaure the powers re- fused to add Crete and Thessaly to the kingdom Leopold resigned the Grecian crown as an empty honor. It is worth noting that Leopold’s wise and successful Teign over the Belgians, who subsequently called him to be their sovereign, drew from Giadstone the eulogium that he was the greatest of the statesman kings of his age, and probably of his century. Among the multitude of interesting facts concerning the Greek fight for lip- erty from 1821 to 1828 two may be singled out as specially worthy of remembrance: The French Revoiution initiated the re- seeing in the | solve among the Hellenes to be free; and the revival of the original form of the pure Greek tongue and return to the en- joyment of its literature was very largely the inspiration of the courage and per- sistence that after seven years of endeavor | threw off the Ottoman yoke. The position of the great powers to » when the Greeks rose ip insurrec- | Greece during that memorable struggle | was very similar to their attitude now; and inasmuch as history often repeats it- seit, the remarkable change the policy of the great Governments then passed of the masses of the European people may promise another sweeping change to Greek advantage. Popular sympathy may in the present emergency again change the plans of the Governments. The Acropolis of Ancient Athens. History gives evidence that it has often been the fate of Europe in regard to the Eastern question to make mistakes which it was compelled to acknowledge by | subsequent acts. At the first out- break of the Greek insurrection in 1821 the European Governments looked coldly npon it as a dangerous eruption against lawful sovereignty. Europe was then dominated by the principles of the Holy Alliance, which, in spite of the fine name, was strongly anta-onistic to hu- man liberty. The sentiment of the people | gradually counteracted this until the great Austrian, statesman, Metternich, took the lead in favoring Greek freedom, declaring that *‘very soon there would be no Greeks left to liberate,” and all the great powers combined to give national life to Hellas. Recent PSR View of Modern Athens, The fact that the present King George is not merely sovereign of Greece, but is in an especial sense Kifig of the Hellenes, is important in connection with the sta- tistics which show that the Hellenes num- ber over 8,000,000, while the population of Greece is not much more than 2,000,000. | When King George was elected every community of Greeks that could muster a | hundred, no matter 1n what distant land, | had a voice in the choosing. The value | of these scattered subjects is illustrated by the large share they took in the re- building of the fairest portion of modern Athens; and the idea suggested by such a claim of wide sovereignty may vet de- velop into a great aid to the restoration of a great Greek nationality. There is a truth in the history of modern Greece which, wnile it will be unwelcome to many, must be recoliected in order that we nay be just to the Turk. The Ottoman was not wholly without excuse for his atrocities, and the feartul vengeance he took while he had the upper hand of the Greeks had its equally cruel provocation. When the rebels rose in the Morea their plan was to exterminate the Turks with- out regard to sex or age, and in so far as they were able they proceeded to execute their design with ruthless brutality. At the capture of Navarino, although the Moslems had been solemnly promised by the terms of capitulation a safeguard out of the city, they were treacherously butch- ered—men, women and children. Equally sanguinary was the taking of Tripolitza- and there the Greek commanaer, Koloko trones, rode from the gate to the citadel without the hoofs of his horse ever touch- ing anything but the faces and bodies of the victims. Such things should be duly considered while we vitnperate the Turk for his cruel conquest of the Isle of Scio. It is noteworthy that the Greeks in many sections, par- ticularly in the Kge- an Ielands, enjoyed a higher degree of lib- erty while under the Turks than was the lot of any other peo- ple in Kurope at that time except the Bwiss. It is recorded asa sober truth of history that Lord Byron, by his eloquence, had a large share in the lib- eration of Greece. Although Greece is now in a deplorable condition financially, and her manufac-} tures are not developed in anything like proportion to the advancement of the age, yet her progress since she was relieved of the Ottoman yoke has been in macy ways very creditable. The Turk left that country sixty-seven years ago & SmoK- ing, blood-soaked ruin. Since then she has 1ncreased .her revenue five hundred fold, the acreage in currants and vineyaras is a hundred times as broad, 2000 miles of fine roads have been built ata cost of ten millions. big'engi- neering enterprises in the way of canal cutting for commerce and for draining wide areas to leave the alluvial soil cap- able of cultivation have been carried through, eleven new cities have been founded on sites formerly deserted, forty towns ruined by the war have been re- built and present ihe aspect of prosperous cities, ten ports have been -cleared and deepened, most prominent among them being the Pirzeus, and the maritime power bas expanded from 430 vessels to more than 5000. In 1836 a Bcotch college representative sent home a report that the least rnined part of Athens were the old ruins them- selves. Now itisa progressive city of 114,000 population and is largely rebuilt in a style of architecture beautiful and classic, many of the finer structures being of white marble. The wealthy Greeks scattered in many lands contribnted to this restora- tion. There is a romantic story connected with the creation of the new library, which is an architect’s dream of beauty solidified in white marble. Vallianos, an opulent merchant, gave it to Greece because Queen Olga had shielded his brother from the fate usually accorded to detected Russian anarchists. Patras, next in size to Athens, is the principal seaport. It was completely de- stroyed by the Turks, but is now rebuilt of white marble and has 50,000 people. Iiliteracy, which was almost universal among the Hellenes while under Turkish rule, is now almost unfindable in the lit- tle kingdom. Education is compuisory, fourteen years’ schooling is provided, and the curriculum reaches from the alphabet to the university. Bince 1888 the interior of Greece has been as safe from brigands as England. The revived nation is very jealously guarding its art treasures and it is against the laws for a genuine antiquity to be sold out of the country—the penalty being five ye imprisonment and a heavy fine. Athens runs more daily papers than the city of New York, and the Greek used is nearly the same as that of Zenophon ana the New Testament. The Greek has maintained his language, his ground and bis blood to the present day—thirty centuries in the same spot. Cecrops ruled in Athens when Moses was writing the decalogne on Mount Binai, and the same form of speech was used as that of the state papers of the Hellas of to-day. The debt of Greece is $75 per head of the population and equals 14 per’ cent'of the -entire wealth of the country.'. 8o wisely has the borrowed money been used the in- curring of it is considered a good invest. ment. There is a strict economy in all branches of the administration. The mem- bers of the Boule are paid but a trifle, and the highest salary of a generaloran ad- miral does not exceed $1200. Only one-third of the Greeks live in Greece. In European Turkey they ont- number the Turks nearly three to one. In Asia Minor they are one-fourth of the Turks. All told the Greek race is to the Turks in the proportion of 6 to 74, The Ottoman empire numbers 34,500,000, but there are less than 10,600 Osmaniis. To whatever we may attribute their power of domination, it is certainly not due to overwhelming numbers. The population of Greece has trebled mnce freedom and is now 2,187,000. The regular army of Greece is 28,000, the reserve 104,000and the Landwehr adds 146,000 more. - The navy has five armored 'vessels, seventeen torpedo-boats and two submarine torpedo-boats. The Greeks of to-day are considered by ethnologists as not only lineal descend- ants of the famous Helienes of old, but in spite of many admixtures to be as like ny race in Europe to their ancestors. In the rapid progress of the human race, contidently expected in the coming twen- ntury, i1t may be that the force of atavism will bring again to the fore the descendants of that peorle of ancient Mellas who by their philosophy, litera- ture and art have so profundly affected modern thought, attention, his little lady finds very much 10 her liking. 1 met one of my neighbors the otherday hurrying ’cross lots in great distress. One of his calves had lost its cud and he was seeking the locat wiseacre to learn what to do. Later Ieaw him returning with the air of one who has found that which he sought. The wiseacre had told him to take a piece of salt pork, wrapped in the leaves of the dogfennel, and put it into the animal’s throat. Hedid thisand afterward told me that the ‘‘false cud” worked like a charm. It would be inter- esting could one trace the origin of this myth of the cow’s cud. Farmer folk will tell you in all seriousness that if a cow loses her cud the loss must be made good within twenty-four hours or the animal will die. According to them this mysterious ob- jeet, when not in use, reposes in the first stomach of ihe cow. One positive owner of cattle assures me that the cow has two cuds, and chews them alternately, and scarcely one but is ready with the most astonishing instances of bovine fatality resultant upon the loss of this useful ap- pendage. And still, in the face of all this, the bare scientific fact is that the cow has no cud, in any such sense. The animal has no upper front teeth. She reaps the green forage with her long, rough tongue, gathering itin in great, juicy mouthfuls, which she swallows without chewing, re- serving that process for leisure moments, when, standing in the shade or lying at ease upon the grass, she devotes herself to meditative mastication. Now we say she is *“chewing the cude’ Literally, she is chewing the contents of the first stomach, and the food, once thoroughly masticated, passes into the second stomach and .is assimilated. I've often been moved to mild wonder as to what becomes of the lumps of salt-pork and other weird bo- luses that well-meaning people thrust into the bovine throat in lieu of the cud which they believe to be lost. Probably more dyspeptic cows have been killed by the “failure’ of this remedy than have been cured by its successtul operation. Yet, so deep-seated is the notion that we find even John Burroughs affirming it in sober credulity. It belongs with the popular bellefs that the frogs of the spring-time bogs become the treetoads of the summer season; that the feet of the centipede secrete a poison- ous fluid; that the cliff-swallow hiber- nates in the mud; that all wild virds sit upon their young in the nest asa hen hovers her chicks, and that humming- birds never perch. A little study would show the most careless observer the ab-"§) surdity of such notions. In truth, nature hasno secrets, She ofters herself to the loving student, and publishes her arts for who will to read. One has oniy to waik abroad with sensesalert and note for him- self what he sees to discover ‘*how candid, and simple, and rothing-withholding, and free’’ is the genius of forest and field and stream. But we, ourselves, are not simple. We love to make and to wonder over mys- teries, the while we assert our determina- tion to accept nothing that our senses do not reveal. We stand in proud incre- dulity before the simple statements of science, and yield ourselves, fascinated, to of pseudo-science, substituting thesense of mystery for simplicity, and darkenine the whole mental landscape with clouds of superstition and nonsence, ADELINE KNArP. AN ENTOMOLOGICAL DISCOVERY. W. Baville-Kent of London, one of the most famous of naturalists, has just made public the news of 8 remarkable discovery by him in Australia—the work of ants, hugein sizeand almost human in intellect. The news thus made publicis of the great- est interest to the scientific world and seems to firmly establish what has hitherto been held as a chimerical theory, that the ant rivaled the monkey in point of in- teltigence. The Australian ants, which Mr. Saville- Kent has found and studied, are of the class known as the termites, or white ants. They are capable of destroying al- most anything tley attack, and 8 human being is by no means safe from assaults by them. Their homes are in the shape of mammoth slabs of sandstone, which they resemble to a considerable degree. A “curious fact that Mr. Baville Kent proved is that in every in- stance the homes of these termites were built from north to south and close observation showed this principle of construction was apparent in all their work. It was. demonstrated to Mr. Sa- ville-Kent's satisfaction that the creatures seemed to govern their actions by the points of the compass, and their work showed conclusively that they moved and lived according to a definite plan. = Bo completa in detail was this plan it con- vinced the traveler that it was the result of what at least approached thought. The white ants are found generally throughout North Queensland, quite a distance icland from Port Darwin, in the Laura Valley. This is an extensive sec- tion of Northern Queensland and in it these ants seem to dwell, divided into tribes and sub-nationalities, being sub- jected, apparently, to a general form of government or vassalage. There seemed to be a central town or community to which at various times ants made pilgrimages from the surrounding country, although the discoverer found that they had homes of their own else- where. The style of house built by these ants varied to a considerable extent. The majority were like the slabs of sandstone already described, while others were like haycocks. A singular form of construc- tion which these ants followed to quite a. little extent was that of the pyramid. Mr. Saville-Kent was, in a number of in- stances, so fortunate as to fina abandoned anthouses of various kinds, and thus he was enabled to observe the inner methods of construction thereof. One mound In particular, a groined columnar structure, was eighteen feet high. This was not far from Port Dar- win. The accompanying illustration, which is drawn from a photograph, is, Saville-Kent tells us, of complete accur- acy. It will be noticed that the point ot ingress and egress is about a foot and a half from the top. The discoverer be- lieves that originally the mound was coni- cal 1n shape, the sides being smooth. It had evidently been in use for many years and the columnar effect noticeable, he believes, is due to the fact that the ants incessantly traveling the pathways up and down the mound pro- duced the grooves that are seen, and re- sulted in giving the effect of a columnar formation. The entrance to the mound, examination showed, had varied in loca- tion, for there was distinct evidence that apertures of this sort had been walled up in several instances. The interior of the mound referred to showed as much as anything the remark- able instinct of the ants. It was divided up very much after the fashion of the tall buildings which are now becoming so common,with an immense court within the structure itself. That is, there were hun- dreds of tiny cells built in from galleri which were terraced one above the other. The galleries were connected by paths of stairways, each of these being constructed with architectural exactness. The cells were almost uniform in size, and reminded —. one, the explorer said, of the cell of a monk. The earth in each instance was a hard and smooth as marble and bore evi- dence of lone-continued usage. A portion of the ground floor or basement of the mound had been divided up into store- rooms, and here it was evident the ants had carefully packed away the provender which they had secured from various points about. While naturalists and students of the intelligence of insects and aniwals have long been inclined to believe that the ant excoeded in at least keenness of instinct all other creatures of its kind, it has never beea conclusively shown until demon- strated by the just-made announcement of Mr. Saville-Kent. AN OLD AND HISTORIC CARRIAGE. Stored away in a dark room in an old adobestable on the Emparan ranch near Sonoma 1s one of the most historic and interesting vehicles in California. It was the property of the late General Vallejo and in its time has been on the scene of some of the most exciting incidents in the history of the State. This interesting carriage was made in England and brought to Monterey in 1836. Since that time it has seen almost con- stant_service, being retired only s short time before the general’s death. It has been from end to end of California many times and except for its battered appear- ance seems to be still good enough for a great deal of hard service. This is all the more remarkable in the face of the fact Knowing that he would have to make the journey several times each year, Gen- eral Vallejo ordered the carriage from England, and said it must be of the best possible quality. When it reached Mon- terey it was the admiration of the county. although it looked a little queer to the people. When four horses were hitched to it and galloped over the desert with it it must huve been a sight worth looking at, for the carriage is picturesque in the ex- treme and everybody knows how gayly horses were decorated in those days. With plenty of changes of horses the trip from Sonoma to Monterey consumed in good weather about four days and from a week to ten days in rainy weather. The road did not lie, as one would suppose, on that the roads it was dragged over in the old days were about as bad as could be found on top of the earth. No roads at all, one might say. The prime reason for the purchase of this vehicle was the Mexican Govern- ment’s extension of its military outposts. Monterey being the headquarters in 1835, the Presidio of Sonoms was looked upon as out of the world. And it was a big journey between the two pointsin those days, even with the best of vehicles. What must it have been in some of the crude traveling contrivances manufactured on the coast at the time? this side of the bay, but along the Oak- land shore. From Sonoma the carriage was driven to Embarcadero, where a sailing vessel transferred it across the bay to Point San Pedro. Sometimes this took only a few hots and sometimes all day. From Point S8an Pedro the road lay along the Berkeley hills toward the Mis- sion San Jose and ‘through where Niles now stands. At this ‘point General Val- lejo’s brother had built a flourmill, said to be the first in the State. From Niles the road passed through the SBanta Clara and Pajaro valleys, resching Monterey by passing the Mission Kl Carmelo. On these | trips the general always had a party with him, and the horses were kept on the gal- lop all the way. When conditions were favorable and the horses in good condi- tion as much as sixty-five miles has been covered in a day. As well as these journeys to Monterey the old carriage has borne the general on business of state to all parts of Californis, as far south as Ensenada and to the north- ward as far as the line of advancing civili- zation extended. Hundreds of miles had been traveled over country where there were no roads, and the horses pulled and dragged through miles of sand and desert vegetation. The saddest moment in the history of the carriage must have been the time when General Vallejo was not permitted to ride in it. Mrs. Haraszthy, General Vallejo’s daughter, will remember the time. It was, she says, when the Bear- | flag raisers made their descent on the town in 1846, and captured her father. He was sick in bed at the time, but was made to ride horseback by the invaders, who took him away from his family, in spite of the fact that he said he was unable to do so, and asked to be allowed to ride in his own carriage, which was quickly harnessed and kept in waiting soon as it was known that he was going. After the exciting times of the rola fever the carriage was used as a convey- ance for business and family until the railroad came through Sonoma. After that it was used by the general for trips about the country until shortly before his death, when it was hauled into this dark room in the old adobe stable, where it bas remained ever since, gradually accu- mulating & covering of cobwebs. Although it is called a carriage General Vallejo’s old vehicle really iooks more like a buggr. But that is as far as the re- semblance goes. The running gear is of the heaviest description, and is the sama to-day as when it first came to this country. There is rcom for three people to sit on the seat, and a large amount of luggage can be carried in front and on straps in the rear. The springs are of the easiest known style—part sieel and part straps. In appearance the vehicle is of the quaint- est description. The high dashboard in front greatly adds to this, aithough at first glance it looks most ungainly. Mre. Emparan, General Vallejo’s daugh. ter,who owns the vehicle, has signified her wiilingness to donate the historic carriage to any California historical society that will promise to properly care for and pre- serve it. This, of course, should be done, as the old conveyance is sure to be of the ETeatest interest to coming generationa.