512 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 



worn by frequent treading. It is not the least surprising 

 circumstance attending this bridge, the Gothic arches 

 before spoken of, and in general all the arches of the 

 various galleries and apartments, that, as Mr. Smeath- 

 man saw every reason for believing, the Termites project 

 their arches, and do not, as one would have supposed, 

 excavate them. 



Consider what incredible labour and diligence, ac- 

 companied by the most unremitting activity and the 

 most unwearied celerity of movement, must be necessary 

 to enable these creatures to accomplish, their size consi- 

 dered, these truly gigantic works. That such diminutive 

 insects, for they are scarcely the fourth of an inch in 

 length, however numerous, should, in the space of three 

 or four years, be able to erect a building twelve feet 

 high and of a proportionable bulk, covered by a vast 

 dome, adorned without by numerous pinnacles and tur- 

 rets, and sheltering under its ample arch myriads of 

 vaulted apartments of various dimensions, and con- 

 structed of different materials — that they should more- 

 over excavate, in different directions and at different 

 depths, innumerable subterranean roads or tunnels, 

 some twelve or thirteen inches in diameter, or throw 

 an arch of stone over other roads leading from the me- 

 tropolis into the adjoining country to the distance of 

 several hundred feet — that they should project and finish 

 the, for them, vast interior stair-cases or bridges lately 

 described — and, finally, that the millions necessary to 

 execute such Herculean labours, perpetually passing to 

 and fro, should never interrupt or interfere with each 

 other, is a miracle of nature, or rather of the Author of 

 nature, far exceeding the most boasted works and struc- 



