VALOUR OF THE TERMITE-SOLDIERS. 



245 



every hundred labourers, and are at once distinguished by the 

 enormous size of their heads armed with long and sharp jaws, 

 are no less remarkable for their courage and 

 energy. 



When anyone is bold enough to attack their 

 nest and make a breach in its walls, the labourers, 

 who are incapable of fighting, immediately retire, 

 upon which a soldier makes his appearance, ob- 

 viously for the purpose of reconnoitring, and then 

 also withdraws to give the alarm. Two or three others next 

 appear, scrambling as fast as they can one after the other ; to 

 these succeed a large body, who rush forth with as much speed 

 as the breach will permit, their numbers continually increasing 

 during the attack. These little heroes present an astonishing, 

 and at the same time a most amusing spectacle. In their haste 

 they frequently miss their hold, and tumble down the sides of 

 their hill ; they soon, however, recover themselves, and being 

 blind, bite everything they run against. If the attack 

 proceeds, the bustle increases to a tenfold degree, and their 

 fury is raised to its highest pitch. Woe to him whose hands or 

 legs come within their reach, for they will make their fanged 

 jaws meet at the very first stroke, drawing their own weight in 

 blood, and never quitting their hold, even though they are 

 pulled limb from limb. The courage of the bulldog is as 

 nothing compared to the fierce obstinacy of the termite-soldier. 



So soon as the injury has ceased, and no further interruption 

 is given, the soldiers retire, and then you will see the labourers 

 hastening in various directions towards the breach, each carrying 

 in his mouth a load of tempered mortar half as big as himself, 

 which he lays on the edge of the orifice, and immediately hastens 

 back for more. Not the space of the tenth part of an inch is left 

 without labourers working upon it at the same moment ; crowds 

 are constantly hurrying to and fro ; yet, amid all this activity, 

 the greatest order reigns — no one impedes the other, but each 

 seems to thread the mazes of the multitude without trouble or 

 inconvenience. By the united labours of such an infinite host 

 the ruined wall soon rises again ; and Mr. Smeathman ha? 

 ascertained that in a single night they will restore a gallery 

 of three or four yards in length. 



In numbers and architectural industry tlie American Termites 



