Chap. 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. 1 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 



1 Dr. Hooker, 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. 



