290 ANTS AND TEKMITES 



without perceiving their numbers to increase or diminish. Both 

 the labourers and soldiers of this species are furnished with 

 eyes. 



One of the many unsolved mysteries of termite life is whence 

 they derive the large supplies of moisture with which they not 

 only temper the clay for the construction of their long covered 

 ways above ground, but for keeping their passages uniformly 

 damp and cool below the surface. Yet their habits in this 

 particular are unvarying, in the seasons of drought as well as 

 after rain ; in the most arid positions ; in situations inaccessible 

 to drainage from above, and cut off by rocks and impervious 

 strata from springs from below. Struck with this wonderful 

 phenomenon, Dr. Livingstone raises the question whether the 

 termites may not possess the power of combining the oxygen or 

 hydrogen of their vegetable food by vital force, so as to form 

 water ; and indeed it is highly probable that they are endowed 

 with some such faculty, which, however wonderful, would 

 still be far less astonishing than the miracles of their architec- 

 tural instinct. 



