516 HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 



the purpose of a flight of stairs, and must shorten the 

 distance exceedingly in transporting eggs from the royal 

 chambers to the upper nurseries, which in some hills 

 would be four or five feet in the straightest line, and 

 much more if carried through all the winding passages 

 which lead through the inner chambers and apartments. 

 Mr. Smeathman measured one of these bridges, which 

 was half an inch broad, a quarter of an inch thick, and 

 ten inches long, making the side of an elliptic arch of 

 proportionable size, so that it is wonderful it did not fall 

 over or break by its own weight before they got it joined 

 to the side of the column above. It was strengthened 

 by a small arch at the bottom, and had a hollow or 

 groove all the length of the upper surface, either made 

 purposely for the greater safety of the passengers, or else 

 worn by frequent treading. It is not the least surprising 

 circumstance attending this bridge, the Gothic arches 

 before spoken of, and in general all the arches of the 

 various galleries and apartments, that, as Mr. Smeath- 

 man saw every reason for believing, the Termites project 

 their arches, and do not, as one would have supposed, 

 excavate them. 



Consider what incredible labour and diligence, ac- 

 companied by the most unremitting activity and the 

 most unwearied celerity of movement, must be necessary 

 to enable these creatures to accomplish, their size consi- 

 dered, these truly gigantic works. That such diminutive 

 insects, for they are scarcely the fourth of an inch in 

 length, however numerous, should, in the space of three 

 or four years, be able to erect a building twelve feet 



