Mr. T. S. Savage on the Termitidse of West Africa. 93 



The features which first strike the beholder are their great size 

 and form. These have been well represented by Smeathman, 

 though two hills cannot be found exactly like. Their contour is 

 generally that of a hay- stack — the surface never regular, always 

 marked with protuberances and upward projections, often not 

 unlike " turrets,^' as termed by Smeathman. 



Sometimes the hill presents the aspect of a mound having 

 been worn down by the heavy rains, or, if in the vicinity of a 

 village, by children playing upon it. In such cases they may be 

 forsaken. 



When they present distinct upward projections or turrets, they 

 are known to be in the process of enlargement. This is always 

 the mode in which these insects increase their domiciles. Turrets 

 are projected one after another, and the intervening spaces filled 

 out, so as to make a continuous surface. Within each of these 

 turrets is a cavity which leads down as a passage into the inte- 

 rior of the hill, or terminates in some other passage, keeping up 

 a free communication throughout the structure. When hills 

 present in their general outline the form of a hay-stack, they 

 have arrived at their maximum size. Their height in such cases 

 is from 12 to 15 feet perpendicular measurement, the circum- 

 ference at base from 50 to 60 feet ; at two-thirds the height, or 

 around the base of the " dome," from. 30 to 40 feet. 



The materials have for their base clay, generally strongly 

 tinged with oxide of iron in the recent state ; after exposure to 

 the sun and atmosphere it takes on a light colour, approaching 

 a dull yellow, in some cases white. There is an admixture, more 

 or less, of other substances incidentally occurring, as gravel, 

 leaves, straw, &c. 



Sometimes the clay presents a dark, slaty aspect, which is in- 

 correctly stated in books to be an indication of a difi'erent species 

 of insect. This fact is owing to different- coloured clays exist- 

 ing in different localities. 



The strength of these structures is incalculably great ; as an 

 evidence of this, Smeathman states that they are often mounted 

 by wild bulls, and four men were known to stand on one to spy 

 a vessel at sea. But more than this, they would sustain more 

 wild bulls and men than could possibly mount them. The particles 

 of clay are cemented together by a fluid excreted from the mouth 

 of the insect (not as Smeathman says, by gums elaborated from 

 the different kinds of wood on which they feed). This, by ex- 

 posure to the sun and atmosphere, becomes exceedingly hard and 

 tenacious on the surface, added to which, the action of the well- 

 known principle in mechanical philosophy involved in the arched 

 form of the structure gives to it a vast degree of strength. This 

 feature in the ceconomy of the Termes fatalis-^the strength of 



