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CHAPTEK XYI. 



STRUCTURES OF WHITE ANTS, OR TERMITES. 



When we look back upon the details wliicli we have 

 given of the industry and ingenuity, of numerous tribes of 

 insects, both solitary and social, Ave are induced to think 

 it almost impossible that they could be surpassed. The 

 structures of wasps and bees, and still more those of the 

 wood-ant (^Formica rufct), when placed in comparison 

 with the size of the insects, equal our largest cities com- 

 pared with the stature of man. But when we look at 

 the buildings erected by the wdiite ants of tropical 

 climates, all that w^e have been surveying dwindles into 

 insignificance. Their industry appears greatly to surpass 

 that of our ants and bees, and they are certainly more 

 skilful in architectural contrivances. The elevation, also, 

 of their edifices is more than five hundred times the height 

 of the builders. Were our houses built according to the 

 same proportions, they w^onld be twelve or fifteen times 

 higher than the London Monument, and four or five times 

 higher than the pyramids of Egypt, with corresponding 

 dimensions in the basements of the edifices. These state- 

 ments are, perhaps, necessary to impress the extraordinary 

 labours of ants upon the mind ; for we are all more or less 

 sensible to the force of comparisons. The analogies 

 between the works of insects and of men are not perfect ; 

 for insects are all provided with instruments peculiarly 

 adapted to the end w^hich they instinctively seek, while 

 man has to form a plan by progressive thought, and upon 

 the experience of others, and to complete it with tools 

 which he also invents. 



The termites do not stand above a quarter of an inch 

 high, while their nests are frequently twelve feet ; and 

 Jobson mentions some which he had seen as hio-h as 



