Cuar. XII.] THE WHITE ANT. 413 
the ground, with a corresponding diameter. They are 
so firm in their texture that the weight of a horse 
makes no apparent indentation on their solidity; and 
even the intense rains of the monsoon, which no cement 
or mortar can long resist, fail to penetrate the surface 
or substance of an ant hill.! In their earlier stages the 
termites proceed with such energetic rapidity, that I 
have seen a pinnacle of moist clay, six inches in height 
and twice as large in diameter, constructed underneath 
a table between sitting down to dinner and the removal 
of the cloth. 
As these lofty mounds of earth have all been carried 
up from beneath the surface, a cave of corresponding 
dimensions is necessarily scooped out below, and here, 
under the multitude of miniature cupolas and pinnacles 
which canopy it above, the termites hollow out the royal 
chamber for their queen, with spacious nurseries sur- 
rounding it on all sides; and all are connected by arched 
galleries, long passages, and doorways of the most in- 
tricate and elaborate construction. In the centre and 
underneath the spacious dome is the recess for the 
queen — a hideous creature, with the head and thorax of 
an ordinary termite, but a body swollen to a hundred 
' Dr. Hooxsr, in his Himalayan 
Journal (vol. i. p. 20) is of opinion 
that the nests of the termites are 
not independent structures, but 
that their nucleus is “the debris 
of clumps of bamboos or the trunks 
of large trees which these insects 
have destroyed.” He supposes 
that the dead tree falls leaving the 
stump coated with sand, which the 
action of the weather soon fashions 
into a cone. But independently of 
the fact that the “action of the 
weather” produces little or no effect 
on the closely cemented clay of the 
white ants’ nest, they may be daily 
seen constructing their edifices in 
the very form of a cone, which 
they ever after retain. Besides 
which, they appear in the midst of 
terraces and fields where no trees 
are to be seen; and Dr. Hooker 
seems to overlook the fact that the 
termites rarely attack a living tree; 
and although their nests may be 
built against one, it continues to 
flourish not the less for their pre- 
sence. 
