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CHAPTER XVI. 



STRUCTURES OF WHITE ANTS, OR TERMITES. 



TI7HEN we look back upon the details which we have given of 

 the industry and ingenuity of numerous tribes of insects, 

 both solitary and social, we are induced to think it almost 

 impossible that they could be surpassed. The structures of 

 wasps and bees, and still more those of the wood-ant (Formica 

 ftt/a), when placed in comparison with the size of the in- 

 sects, equal our largest cities compared with the stature of 

 man. But when we look at the buildings erected by the 

 white ants of tropical climates, all that we have been sur- 

 veying dwindles into insignificance. Their industry appears 

 greatly to surpass that of our ants and bees, and they are 

 certainly more skilful in architectural contrivances. The 

 elevation, also, of their edifices is more than five hundred 

 times the height of the builders. Were our houses built 

 according to the same proportions, they would be twelve or 

 fifteen times higher than the London Monument, and four or 

 five times higher than the pyramids of Egypt, with corre- 

 sponding dimensions in the basements of the edifices. These 

 statements are, perhaps, necessary to impress the extra- 

 ordinary labours of ants upon the mind ; for we are all more 

 or less sensible to the force of comparisons. The analogies 

 between the works of insects and of men are not perfect ; for 

 insects are all provided with instruments peculiarly adapted 

 to the end which they instinctively seek, while man 1 as to 

 form a plan by progressive thought, and upon the experience 

 of others, and to complete it with tools which he also invents. 

 The termites do not stand above a quarter of an inch high, 

 while their nests are frequently twelve feet, and Jofyson 

 mentions some which he had seen as high as twenty feet ; 

 " of compass," he adds, " to contain a dozen men, with the 

 heat of the sun baked into that hardness, that we used to 



