PACKARD] INSECTS AS ARCHITECTS. 301 



the nests within one hundred 3'ards of your house, the in- 

 habitants of those which are left unmolested farther off will 

 nevertheless carry on their subterraneous galleries, and in- 

 vade the goods and merchandizes contained in it by sap and 

 mine, and do great mischief, if you are not very circum- 

 spect." Smeathman then remarks that the galleries are 

 nei-essarily large, as they are the "great thoroughfares for 

 all the laborers and soldiers going forth or returning upon 

 any business whatever, whether fetching clay, wootl, water or 

 provisions ; and they are certainly well calculated for the 

 purposes to which they are applied, by the spiral sloi)e which 

 is given them, for if they were perpendicular the laborers 

 would not be able to carry on their building with so much 

 facility, as the}' ascend a perpendicular with great difficulty, 

 and the soldiers can scarce do it at all. It is on this account 

 that sometimes a road like a ledge is made on the perpen- 

 dicular side of any part of the building within their hill, 

 which is flat on the upper surface, and half an inch wide, 

 and ascends gradually like a staircase, or like those roads 

 which are cut on the sides of hills and mountains, that would 

 otherwise be inaccessible ; by which, and similar contri- 

 vances, they travel with great facility to every interior part. 



"This too is probabl}' the cause of their building a kind 

 of bridge of one vast arch, which answers the purpose of a 

 flight of stairs from the floor of the area to some opening 

 on the side of one of the columns which support the great 

 arches, which must shorten the distance exceedingly to those 

 labourers who have the eggs to carry from tlie royal chamber 

 to some of the upi)er nurseries, wliich in some hills would 

 be four or five feet in the straightest line and much more if 

 carried through all the winding passages which lead through 

 the inner chambers and apartments." 



Whether the work of these white ants is due to the opera- 

 tions of a "blind instinct" or unconscious automatism may 

 well be doubted. It should be borne in mind also that the 



13 



