THE WHITE ANTS. 



the eggs from the queen, the provision for the young, &c.. 



N.B. The magazines of provisions are situated without any 



seeming order, among the vacant passages which surround the 



nurseries, 

 u. The top of the interior building, which often seems, from the 



arches carried upward, to be adorned on the sides with 



pinnacles. 



c. The floor of the area or nave. 

 D D D. The large galleries which ascend from under all the 



buildings spirally to the top. 

 E E. The bridge. 



3. The first appearance of a hill-nest by two turrets. 



4. A tree with the nest of the Termites arborum, with their 



covered way. 

 F F F F. Covered ways of the Termites arborum. 



5. The nest of the Termites arborum. 



6. A nest of the Termites bellicosi, with Europeans on it. 



7. A bull standing sentinel upon one of these nests. 



G G G. The African palm-trees from the nuts of which is made the 

 Oleum palmee. 



26. When by the accumulation of these turrets the dome has 

 been completed, in which process the turrets supply the place of 

 scaffolding, the workers excavate the interior of them, and make 

 use of the clay in building the partitions and walls of the apart- 

 ments constructed in the base of the mound which constitutes 

 their proper habitation, and also for erecting fresh turrets sur- 

 mounting the mound and increasing its height. In this manner 

 the same clay, which, as has been already explained, was excavated 

 from the underground ways issuing around the mound, is used 

 several times over, just as are the posts and boards of a mason's 

 scaffolding. 



27. When these mounds have attained a little more than half 

 their height, their tops being then flat, the bulls which are the 

 leaders of the herds of wild cattle which prevail in the surround- 

 ing country, are accustomed to mount upon them so as to obtain 

 a view of the surrounding plain : thus placed they act as sentinels 

 for the general herd which feeds and ruminates around them, 

 giving them notice of the approach of any danger. This circum- 

 stance supplies an incidental proof of the strength of these 

 structures. 



28. Smeathman states that when he was in that country, and 

 desired to obtain a view of the sea to ascertain the approach 

 of vessels, he was in the habit of mounting with three or four 

 of his assistants upon the summits of these conical mounds,. 



106 



