190 THE TERMITES. 



rebuilt further off, a constant feverish activity prevails in the 

 interior of the nest, and all tasks are performed with won- 

 derful acuteness, regularity, and prudence. 



Above and below the royal cell are the rooms of the 

 workers and soldiers which are specially charged with the 

 care and defence of the royal pair. They communicate 

 with each other, as well as with the nursery-cells and store- 

 rooms, by means of galleries and passages which, as already 

 said, open into the common room in the middle under the 

 dome. This room is surrounded by high, boldly projected 

 arched ways, which lose themselves further out in the walls 

 of the countless rooms and galleries. Many roofs outside 

 and in protect this room and the surrounding chambers from 

 rain, which, as already said, is drained away by countless 

 subterranean canals, made of clay and of a diameter of ten 

 or twelve centimetres. There are also, under the layer of 

 clay covering the whole building, broad spirally winding 

 passages running from below to the highest points, which 

 communicate with the passages of the interior, and apparently, 

 as they mainly consist of smooth inclines, serve for carrying 

 provisions to the higher parts of the nest. 



It is exceptionally difficult to investigate accurately the 

 ulterior of a Termites' nest, owing to the interdependence 

 of the several parts the destruction of one room, arch, or 

 passage causing the breaking down of many ; added to this, 

 the energetic resistance of the Termites' soldiers, armed 

 with very sharp and strong mandibles, puts great obstacles 

 in the way of the observer. " They fight," says the English 

 traveller Smeathman, the distinguished Termites' observer, 

 to whom we owe the best and fullest information upon these 

 creatures, " They fight to the last man, and they defend so 

 energetically every inch of their property that they often 

 drive away the unshod negroes, while the blood of the 

 European runs through his stockings. We were never able 

 to study the interior of a nest in peace, for while the soldiers 

 attacked us, the workers stopped up as quickly as possible 

 the rooms and passages laid open. They do this especially 

 in the neighborhood of the royal dwelling, for which they 

 show the greatest care, and that so cleverly that from out- 

 side it only looks like a formless heap of clay and cannot be 

 distinguished from its surroundings. Nevertheless it is not 

 hard to find, partly from its situation in the midst of the 



