304 HABITS AND INSTINCTS OF ANIMALS. CHAP. X. 



hid within these tunnels, they can neither see such an 

 object^ nor is it probable that they can smell it, 

 since the compactness of their walls, impervious to rain, 

 might be supposed, also, to intercept the particular 

 odour which would guide them in what direction to 

 make their engineering approaches, in other words, 

 to carry on their tunnels. Have they no reconnoitring 

 parties, which proceed, under cover of the darkness of 

 night, to explore and examine the neighbourhood, and 

 to bring a report to the rest of the community as to the 

 best and nearest supply of food to which they should 

 next direct their attention ? This seems to us an object 

 worthy of future research ; for in what way can we 

 otherwise account for the positive fact, that their roads 

 to a given object are always found to be the shortest, 

 the best, and the most judicious of any that could have 

 been chosen ? They could not, indeed, be better planned, 

 even if they had been laid out by a distinct class, 

 trained and educated as civil engineers. Such, at least, 

 were our thoughts, while contemplating these creatures 

 in the forests of Tropical America ; and, although the 

 circumstance is not alluded to by Smeathman, there is 

 no reason to doubt that the African species do not 

 possess the same unaccountable faculties. Independent 

 of these numerous roads, which must foe constantly 

 extended and varied, as supplies of food are exhausted 

 and discovered, the labourers have ample employ- 

 ment in enlarging and improving their common 

 dwelling, in proportion as its population increases, and 

 further accommodation is required : the royal chamber, 

 as before intimated, must undergo many alterations ; 

 the nurseries must be removed and increased; and, 

 sufficient supply of provisions procured for the whole 

 society. It has been generally supposed that these con- 

 sisted of the fibres of wood, for, whenever the Termites 

 have been at work, there is always a quantity of coarse 

 dust, resembling filings ; but it appears by recent ex- 

 amination, that these, when examined with a micro- 

 scope, " are found to consist chiefly of gums and the 



