THE WHITE ANTS. 459 



soon lost among the innumerable chambers and 

 nurseries behind them. All these chambers and 

 passages are arched, and contribute naturally to 

 support one another. The inferior building, or as- 

 semblage of nurseries, chambers, and passages, has a 

 flattish roof without any perforation. By this con- 

 trivance, if, by accident, water should penetrate 

 the external dome, the apartments below are pre- 

 served from injury. The area has also a flattish 

 floor, which is situated above the royal chamber. 

 It is likewise water-proof, and so constructed that, 

 if water gets admittance, it runs off by subterra- 

 neous passages, which are cylindrical, and some of 

 them so much as even thirteen inches in diameter. 

 These subterraneous passages are thickly lined with 

 the same kind of clay of which the hill is com- 

 posed : they ascend the internal part of the exter- 

 nal shell in a spiral form, and, winding round the 

 whole building up to the top, intersect and commu- 

 nicate with each other at different heights. From 

 every part of these large galleries a number of 

 pipes, or smaller galleries, leading to different apart- 

 ments of the building, proceed. There are like- 

 wise a great many which lead downward, by slop- 

 ing descents, three and four feet perpendicular 

 under ground, among the gravel, from which the 

 labouring Ants select the finer parts j which, after 

 being worked up in their mouths to the consistence 

 of mortar, become that solid clay or stone, of which 

 their hills, and every apartment of their buildings, 

 except the nurseries, are composed. Other galle- 

 ries ascend and lead out horizontally on every side, 



