42 INTERNAL ARRANGEMENT. 



of the building. Many of these run under ground, 

 descending into the earth three or four feet pei-pen- 

 dicularly; from whence the labourers collect the 

 finer particles, which, after being worked in their 

 mouths to the consistence of mortar, become that 

 solid clay of which their hills, and all their buildings 

 except the nurseries, are composed. Some of these 

 pipes extend to a vast distance, at least with re- 

 spect to such minute creatures, being carried out more 

 than an hundred yards from their main city. The 

 large galleries are the great thoroughfares, and are 

 well calculated by their spiral direction for that pur- 

 pose ; as the termites have great difficulty in ascend- 

 ing a perpendicular, particularly the soldiers, pro- 

 bably from the weight and size of their head. If 

 any part of the building happens to be upright, the 

 inconvenience of ascending it is often obviated by a 

 road, made like a flat ledge, directed in the manner 

 of those roads which are cut on the sides of steep 

 hills, to render the passage easier. It is probable 

 that it is for the same convenience that they build a 

 kind of bridge, of one large arch, which answers the 

 purpose of a flight of stairs, from the floor of the area 

 to some opening in one of the columns which support 

 the great arches. This passage shortens the distance 

 exceedingly to those labourers who have the task of 

 canying the eggs from the royal chamber to some of 



