510 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 



area in the middle, under the dome, very much resem- 

 bling the nave of an old cathedral, having its roof sup- 

 ported by three or four very large Gothic arches, of 

 which those in the middle of the area are sometimes two 

 and three feet high, but as they recede on each side ra- 

 pidly diminish like the arches of aisles in perspective. 

 A flattish root^ imperforated in order to keep out the wet, 

 if the dome should chance to be injured, covers the top 

 of the assemblage of chambers, nurseries, &c. ; and the 

 area, which is a short height above the royal chamber, 

 has a flattish floor also water-proof, and so contrived as 

 to let any rain that may chance to get in run off into the 

 subterraneous passages. 



These passages or galleries, which are of an astonish- 

 ing size, some being above a foot in diameter and per- 

 fectly cylindrical, lined with the same kind of clay of 

 which the hill is composed, served originally, like the 

 catacombs of Paris, as the quarries whence the materials 

 of the building were derived, and afterwards as the grand 

 outlets by which the Termites carry on their depreda- 

 tions at a distance from their habitations. They run in 

 a sloping direction under the bottom of the hill to the 

 depth of three or four feet, and then branching out hori- 

 zontally on every side, are carried under ground, near 

 to the surface, to a vast distance. At their entrance 

 into the interior they communicate with other smaller 

 galleries, which ascend the inside of the outer shell in a 

 spiral manner, and, winding round the whole building 

 to the top, intersect each other at different heights, 

 open'mg either immediately into the dome in various 

 places, and into the lower half of the building, or com- 

 municating with every part of it by other smaller circular 



