298 Microscopical Essays, 



In the infant (late of the colony, it is not above an inch, or 

 thereabouts, in length ; but in- time will be increafed to fix or 

 eight inches, or more, in the clear, being always in proportion 

 to the fize of the queen, who, increafmg in bulk as in age, at 

 length requires a chamber of fuch dimenfions,. 



The floor is perfectly horizontal, and in large hillocks, fome- 

 times an inch thick and upward of folid clay ; the roof alfo, which 

 is one folid and well-turned oval arch, is generally of about the 

 fame folidity, but in fome places it is not a quarter of an inch 

 thick ;' this is on the fides where it joins the floor, and where the 

 doors or entrances are made level therewith, at pretty equal 

 diftances from each other. 



Thefe entrances will not admit any animal larger than the 

 foldiers or labourers ; fo that the king, and the queen (who is, when 

 full grown, a thoufand times the weight of a king) can never 

 poflibly go out. 



The royal chamber,' if in a large hillock, is furrounded by am 

 innumerable quantity of others* of different fizes, ftiapes, and 

 dimenfions ; but all of them arched in one way or another, fome- 

 times circular, and fometimes elliptical or oval 



Thefe either open into each other, or communicate by paflages 

 as wide, and being always empty, are evidently made for the 

 foldiers and attendants ; of whom, it will foon appear, great 

 numbers are neceflary,. and of courfe always in waiting. 



Thefe 



