82 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [ANNO I J8 1. 



bowl under, or behind any pieces of broken clay which lay most convenient for 

 the purpose. 



Some of these little unhappy creatures would ramble from the chamber, as if 

 to explore the cause of such a horrid ruin and catastrophe to their immense 

 building, as it must appear to them; and, after fruitless endeavours to get over 

 the side of the bowl, return and mix with the croud, that continue running 

 round their common parents to the last. Others, placing themselves along her 

 side, get hold of the queen's vast matrix with their jaws, and pull with all their 

 strength, so as visibly to lift up the part which they fix at; but, as Mr. S. never 

 saw any effect from these attempts, he never could determine whether this pulling 

 was with an intention to remove her body, or to stimulate her to move herself, 

 or for any other purpose; but, after many ineffectual tugs, they would desist, 

 and join in the croud running round, or assist some of those whc are cutting off 

 clay from the external parts of the chamber or some of the fragments, and 

 moistening it with the juices of their bodies, to begin to work a thin arched shell 

 over the body of the queen, as if to exclude the air, or to hide her from the 

 observation of some enemy. These, if not interrupted, before the next morn- 

 ing, completely cover her, leaving room enough within for great numbers to run 

 about her. Mr. S. does not mention the king in this case, because he is very 

 small in proportion to the queen, not being larger than 30 of the labourers, so 

 that he generally conceals himself under one side of the abdomen, except when 

 he goes up to the queen's head, which he does now and then, but not so fre- 

 quently as the rest. 



If in your attack on the hill you stop short of the royal chamber, and cut 

 down about half of the building, and leave open some thousands of galleries and 

 chambers, they will all be shut up with thin sheets of clay before the next morn- 

 ing. If even the whole is pulled down, and the different buildings are thrown 

 in a confused heap of ruins, provided the king and queen are not destroyed or 

 taken away, every interstice between the ruins, at which either cold or wet can 

 possibly enter, will be so covered as to exclude both, and, if the animals are 

 left undisturbed, in about a year they will raise the building to near its pristine 

 size and grandeur. 



The marching termites are not less curious in their order, than those described 

 before. This species seems much scarcer and larger than the termes bellicosus. 

 Mr. S. could get no information relative to them from the black people, from 

 which he conjectures they are little known to them: his seeing them was very 

 accidental. One day having made an excursion with his gun up the river Came- 

 rankoes, on his return through the thick forest, while he was sauntering very 

 silently in hopes of finding some sport, on a sudden he heard a loud hiss, which, 

 on account of the many serpents in those countries, is a most alarming sound. 



