VOL. LXXI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 65 



The outward shell or dome is not only of use to protect and support the in- 

 terior buildings from external violence and the heavy rains, but to collect and 

 preserve a regular degree of genial warmth and moisture, which seems very ne- 

 cessary for hatching the eggs and cherishing the young ones. The royal chamber, 

 which Mr. S. so calls on account of its being adapted for, and occupied by, the 

 king and queen, appears to be in the opinion of this little people of the most 

 consequence, being always situated as near the centre of the interior building as 

 possible, and generally about the height of the common surface of the ground, 

 at a pace or two from the hillock. It is always nearly in the shape of half an 

 egg or an obtuse oval within, and may be supposed to represent a long oven. In 

 the infant state of the colony, it is but about an inch in length; but in time 

 will be increased to 6 or 8 inches or more in the clear, being always in propor- 

 tion to the size of the queen, who, increasing in bulk as in age, at length re- 

 quires a chamber of such dimensions. Its floor is perfectly horizontal; and in 

 large hillocks, sometimes more than an inch thick of solid clay. The roof also, 

 which is one solid and well-turned oval arch, is generally of about the same so- 

 lidity, but in some places it is not a quarter of an inch thick, viz. on the sides 

 where it joins the floor, and where the doors or entrances are made level with it 

 at nearly equal distances from each other. These entrances will not admit any 

 animal larejer than the soldiers or labourers; so that the king, and the queen, 

 who is, at full size, a thousand times the weight of a king, can never possibly 



go out. 



The royal chamber, if in a large hillock, is surrounded by an innumerable 

 quantity of others of different sizes, shapes, and dimensions; but all of them 

 arched in one way <" r another, sometimes circular, and sometimes elliptical or 

 oval. These either open into each other, or communicate by passages as wide; 

 and, being always empty, are evidently made for the soldiers and attendants, of 

 whom it will soon appear great numbers are necessary, and of course always in 

 waiting. These apartments are joined by the magazines and nurseries. The 

 former are chambers of clay, and are always well filled with provisions, which to 

 the naked eye seem to consist of the raspings of wood and plants which the ter- 

 mites destroy, but are found in the microscope to be principally the gums or in- 

 spissated juices of plants. These are thrown together in little masses, some of 

 which are finer than others, and resemble the sugar about preserved fruits, others 

 are like tears of gum, one quite transparent, another like amber, a 3d brown, 

 and a 4th quite opaque, as we see often in parcels of ordinary gums. These 

 magazines are intermixed with the nurseries, which are buildings totally different 

 from the rest of the apartments: for these are composed entirely of wooden 

 materials, seemingly joined together with gums. Mr. S. calls them the nurseries 

 because they are invariably occupied by the eggs, and young ones, which appear 



vol. xv. K 



