570 INSTINCTS OF TERMITES, OR WHITE ANTS. 



always are found to contain eggs and young ones, are entirely 

 composed of wooden materials, seemingly joined together with 

 gums. These are placed as near as possible to the royal apart- 

 ments. When the nest is in the infant state, they are close to 

 the royal chamber ; but as, in process of time, the queen enlarges, 

 it becomes necessary to enlarge this chamber for her accommo- 

 dation ; and as she then lays a greater number of eggs, and 

 requires a greater number of attendants, so is it necessary to 

 enlarge and increase the number of the adjacent apartments ; for 

 which purpose, the small nurseries that were at first built are 

 taken to pieces, and are rebuilt a little farther off. The nurseries 

 are inclosed in chambers of clay, like those which contain the 

 provisions, but much larger. In the early state of the nest they 

 are not larger than a hazel-nut ; but in old hills, they are often 

 as large as the head of a child a year old. Under the dome is a 

 large open space, which is surrounded by three or four large 

 arches of a somewhat gothic form ; this space may perhaps be 

 intended to equalise the temperature of the chambers below, by 

 preventing either the sun or the cold air from at once affecting 

 the latter. 



Beneath the lowest apartments are found a set of large passages, 

 which communicate with all the chambers of the interior, and 

 also with the galleries that diverge from the nest in various 

 directions. These passages, which are thickly lined with the 

 same kind of clay as that of which the hill is composed, ascend 

 the inside of the shell in a spiral manner ; winding round the 

 whole building up to the top, and intersecting each other at 

 different heights, and communicating with the various chambers 

 by galleries branching out from them. From the bottom of 

 these are several large galleries, which lead downwards into the 

 ground below, sometimes to the depth of three or four feet ; these 

 are mines or quarries, whence the Termites obtain the fine gravel 

 and clay, which they work up in their mouths to the consistence 

 of mortar ; and then use in the construction of their buildings. 

 Other galleries extend horizontally beneath the ground, at a 

 small depth below its surface, to a great distance. Sometimes 

 these passages cannot be continued under ground in the required 

 direction ; and the Termites then make pipes or covered- ways 

 along its surface, composed of the same materials with the nests. 

 These they continue, with many windings and ramifications, for 

 great lengths ; and they construct, where it is possible, subter- 

 ranean pipes running parallel with them, into which they may 

 sink and save themselves, if their galleries above ground are 



