THE WHITE ANTS. 46 1 



the nest, as if they supposed the monster that da- 

 maged their cattle had fled. Before the whole of 

 the soldiers have got in, the labouring insects are 

 all in motion, and hasten toward the breach, each 

 of them having a quantity of tempered mortar in 

 his mouth. This mortar they stick upon the breach 

 as fast as they arrive, and perform the operation 

 with so much dispatch and facility that, notwith- 

 standing the immensity of their numbers, they never 

 stop or embarrass one another. During this scene 

 of apparent hurry and confusion, the spectator is 

 agreeably surprised when he perceives a regular 

 wall gradually rising and filling up the chasm. 

 While the labourers are thus employed, almost all 

 the soldiers remain within, except here and there 

 one, who saunters about among six hundred or a 

 thousand labourers, but never touches the mortar. 

 One soldier, however, always takes his station close 

 to the wall that the labourers are building. This 

 soldier turns himself leisurely on all sides, and, at 

 intervals of a minute or two, raises his head, beats 

 upon the building with his forceps, and makes the 

 vibrating noise formerly mentioned. A loud hiss 

 instantly issues from the inside of the dome, and 

 all the subterraneous caverns and passages. That 

 this hiss proceeds from the labourers is apparent ; 

 for, at every signal of this kind, they work with 

 redoubled quickness and alacrity. A renewal of 

 the attack, however, instantly changes the scene. 

 " On the first stroke," Mr. Smeathman remarks, 

 " the labourers run into the many pipes and galle- 

 ries with which the building is perforated, whieji 



