Packakp.] insects as ARCHITECTS. 299 



that on those he saw four men eoukl stand with ease. The 

 nests are ornamented with numerous conical turrets, some- 

 times four or five feet high. Tlie walls of this dome are 

 exceedingly hard and form a sort of shell protecting an inte- 

 rior building, divided into "an amazing number of apart- 

 ments for the king and queen, and the nursing of their 

 numerous progeny ; or for magazines, which are always 

 found well filled with stores and provisions." These colos- 

 sal hills begin as little turrets a foot high ; others are built 

 near them, the highest one being built in the middle, until 

 the spaces between are filled up and the whole built together 

 into a single dome. This outer shell or dome not only pro- 

 tects and shelters the rooms within, but maintains an equi- 

 table temperature and moisture within, "very necessary for 

 hatching the eggs and cherishing the young ones." 



In the centre of the inner building near the base is the 

 oven-like royal chamber, which is enlarged from an inch to 

 six or eight inches or more in the clear as the queen in- 

 creases in size. Here the king and queen are kept willing 

 prisoners, as the entrances are only large enough to admit 

 the workers which are much smaller. The ro3'al chamber is 

 surrounded by multitudes of smaller apartments which con- 

 nect with the larger magazines and nurseries. The maga- 

 zines are filled with provisions consisting of the gum of 

 trees in small tears, resembling the sugar about preserved 

 fruits. The nurseries containing the eggs and young are 

 built of "wooden materials seemingly joined together with 

 gums" and situated around the royal chamber. 



All these apartments lead by arched passages into an 

 open area or rotunda under the dome, which is compared 

 by Sineathman to the nave of a cathedral. This nave "is 

 surrounded b^f- three or four very large Gothic-shaped arches, 

 which are sometimes two or three feet high next the front 

 of the area, but diminish very rapidly as they recede from 

 thence like the arches of aisles in perspectives, and are soon 



11 



