OF NATURAL HISTORY. ;^6g 



■fo conftruded, that, if water gets admittance, it runs ofF bj fubtcr- 

 raneous paflages, wliich are of an aftonilliing magnitude. ' I mca- 

 ' fared one of them,' fays Mr Smeathman, ' which was perfeflly 

 ' cylindrical, and thirteen inches in diameter.' Thefe fiibierraneous 

 paflages are thickly lined with the fame kind of clay of which the 

 hill is compofed, afcend the intcrnru part of the external fhell in a 

 fpiral form, and, winding round the whole building up to the top, 

 interfeCt and communicate with each other at different heis-'hts. From 

 every part of thefe large galleries a number of pipes, or fmaller gal- 

 leries, leading to different apartments of the building, proceed. There 

 are likewife a great many which lead downward, by floping de- 

 fcents, three and four feet perpendicular under ground, among the 

 gravel, from which the labouring termites felei^ the finer parts, 

 which, after being worked up in their mouths to the confidence of 

 mortar, become that folid clay or ftone of which their hills, and 

 every apartment of their buildings, except the nurferies, are com- 

 pofed. Other galleries afcend and lead out horizontally on every 

 fide, and are carried Under ground, but near the furface, to great 

 diftances. Suppofe the whole nefts within a hundred yards of a houfe 

 were completely deftroyed, the inhabitants of thofe at a greater di- 

 ftance will carry on their fubterraneous galleries, and invade the 

 goods and merchandizes contained in it by fap and mine, unlefs 

 great attention and circumfpeSion are employed by the proprietor. 



Mr Smeathman concludes his defcription of the habitations of the 

 termites bellicq/i, with much modefty, in the following words t 

 ' Thus I have defcribed, as briefly as the fubje£l: would admit, and I 

 ' truft without exaggeration, thofe wonderful buildings, whofe fize, 

 * and external form, have often been mentioned by travellers, but 

 ' whofe interior, and raofl; curious parts are fo little known, that I 

 ' may venture to confider my account of them as new, which is the 

 ' only merit it has; for they are conftruded upon fo different a plan 

 ■j- 3 A ' from 



