64 JOURNAL OF THE [April, 



substances, which were laid in cement. When the latter hard- 

 ens, it binds the bricks into a firm structure. The operation of 

 setting these pellets seems almost incredible. When a breach 

 is made in a gallery a few soldiers — Nasuti — rush out to guard 

 the gallery against the intrusion of invaders, while others rush 

 off to notify the workers to come and repair the breach. A 

 worker comes, not to see what is to be done, but with his brick 

 in his mandibles, and sets it on the edge of the broken gallery — 

 firmly, and with precision — by a few movements of his head, 

 without line, plummet or square. Being a master-workman he 

 possesses both precision and delicacy of touch, and does not 

 require the implements of man to test the correctness of his 

 work. After he has laid the brick, has he finished — ready to 

 descend for another pellet ? Not by any means. He is too 

 careful a builder — not building a house of sand ; but he must 

 provide against the fury of the elements. He turns around, and 

 from one of two appendages, near the posterior portion of the 

 abdomen, he ejects a whitish cement on the brick he has laid. 

 In the sun-light the cement turns dark in a few minutes. The 

 appendages I have called eductors, which may be seen, with the 

 special glands for secreting the cement, in object, No. 35. The 

 observations which led to this discovery were undertaken at my 

 suggestion, by Mr. J. Beaumont, Supt. of Motive Power of the 

 Panama Railway, at Colon. Mr. Beaumont soon became so 

 interested in making observations, that he established two ter- 

 mitariums in glass, for the purpose of watching the Termites at 

 work, and has learned more of their habits than has been before 

 reported. 



When I was upon the Isthmus, I was very much impressed 

 with the extent of the galleries constructed by the Termites. 

 These galleries serve not only as means of communication, but 

 also as means of protection from the common ants, which 

 destroy the workers of the Termites, if not their soldiers. In a 

 ride down the Chagres, I saw upon several trees, not less than 

 one hundred feet high, Termite galleries, extending from the 

 base up the trunk to the uppermost branches, apparently follow- 

 ing each one. At the base, the exterior width of the gallery 

 appeared to be at least five-eighths or three-quarters of an inch, 

 but the galleries did not project from the bark of the tree more 

 than one-fourth or three-eighths of an inch. The galleries 



