Sl4 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 



resembling^ the nave of an old cathedral, having its roof 

 supported 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 

 rapidly diminish like the arches of aisles in perspective. 

 A flattish roof, 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 asto- 

 nishing size, some being above a foot in diameter and 

 perfectly cylindrical, lined with the same kind of clay 

 of which the hill is composed, served originally, like 

 the catacombs of Paris, as the quarries w hence the ma- 

 terials of the building were derived, and afterwards as 

 the grand outlets by which the Termites carry on their 

 depredations at a distance from their habitations. They 

 r'.uj in a sloping direction under the bottom of the hill 

 to the depth of three or four feet, and then branching 

 oiit horizontally 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 eacli other at dif- 

 ferent heights, opening either immediately into the 

 dome in various places, and into the lower half of the 

 building, or communicating with every part of it by 

 other smaller circular or oval galleries of different dia- 



