THE MUSEUM. 



75 



Orcastcr turritus, M. & T. 



A fine PaciMc form frequenting the Pelew 

 Islands. 



J ^^^• 







Goiiiastcr eqticstris, Gmel. 



Found on coast of England. Fine larj 

 species greatly admired. 



have been found measuring fifteen feet 

 in height, or, to make a more remark- 

 able comparison, one thousand times 

 the length of the builder. Even the 

 Eiffel Tower or the Ferris Wheel, is 

 only a hundred and eighty-seven times 

 the average height of man. If built 

 upon the same scale as the Tcniiitcs it 

 would have to be 4,800 feet. 



This wonderful insect builds a hil- 

 lock in the form of a cupola. The in- 

 terior arrangement is very complicated, 

 but at the same time wonderfully well 

 adapted to the wants of the inhabit- 

 ants. In all there are four stories 

 covered by the exterior walls. The 

 walls of the dome are very thick, the 

 clay, in drying, attains a hardness like 

 brick ; it is said that the sentinels 

 of herds of wild cattle choose these 

 tumuli as observatories, and do not break 

 them down. The exterior wall sof the 

 nest are hollowed by galleries of two 



kinds; some horizontal, giving access 

 from the outside to all the stories, the 

 others mounting spirally in the thickness 

 of the wall to the summit of the 

 dome. These little passages, however, 

 are only used during the construction 

 of the nest by the masons when build- 

 ing the cupola, and are left to be util- 

 ized again should a break in the nest 

 occur. The lower ends of these gal- 

 leries are very wide and sink into the 

 earth beneath the palace to a depth of 

 more than four and a half feet. These 

 subterranean passages are to be com- 

 pared with the catacombs of the old 

 European cities. Their origin is sim- 

 ilar and they are ancient quarries hol- 

 lowed out in obtaining the necessar}' 

 clay for the construction of the palace. 

 They also serve as drains, when the 

 rainy season begins, to carry off the 

 water. 



The foregoing facts demonstrate that 



