THE CLAY-BUILT CITADELS OF THE TERMITES. 243 



the grassy plain around. Only tlie under part of the mound is 

 inhabited by the white ants, the upper portion serving prin- 

 cipally as a defence from the weather, and to keep up in the 

 lower part the warmth and moisture necessary to the hatching 

 of the eggs and cherishing of the young ones. In the centre, 

 and almost on a level with the ground, is placed the sanctuary 

 of the whole community — the large cell, where the queen 

 resides with her consoit, and which she is doomed never to quit 

 again, after having been once enclosed in it, since the portals 

 soon prove too narrow for her rapidly-increasing bulk. En- 

 circling the regal apartment, extends a labyrinth of countless 

 chambers, in which a numerous army of attendants and soldiers 

 is constantly in waiting. The space between these chambers 

 and the external wall of the citadel is filled with other cells, partly 

 destined for the eggs and young larvae, partly for store-rooms. 

 The subterranean passages which lead from the mound are 

 hardly less remarkable than the building itself. Perfectly 

 cylindrical, and lined with a cement of clay, similar to that 

 of which the hill is formed, they sometimes measure a foot in 

 diameter. They run in a sloping direction, under the bottom 

 of the hi]], to a depth of three or four feet, and then ramifying 

 horizontally into numerous branches, ultimately rise near to 

 the surface at a considerable distance. At their entrance into 

 the interior of the hill, they are connected with a great number 

 of smaller galleries, which, gradually winding round the whole 

 building to the top, intersect each other at different heights. 

 The necessity for the vast size of the main galleries under- 

 ground, evidently arises from the circumstance of their being 

 the great thoroughfares for the inhabitants, by which they fetch 

 their clay, wood, water, or provisions, and their gradual ascent 

 is requisite, as the Termites can only with great difficulty climb 

 perpendicularly. 



It may be imagined that such works require an enormous 

 population for their construction ; and, indeed, the manner in 

 which an infant colony of termites is formed and grows, until 

 becoming, in its turn, the parent of new migrations, is not the 

 least wonderful part of this wonderful insect's history. 



At the end of the dry season, as soon as the first rains have 

 fallen, the male and female perfect termites, each about the 

 size of two soldiers, or thirty labourers, and furnished with four 



