PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



33 



mount a surface quite perpendicular) penetrate to the depth 

 of three or four feet under their nests into the earth, till they 

 arrive at a soil proper to be used in the erection of their 

 buildings. Were they, indeed, to expose themselves, the race 

 would soon be annihilated by their innumerable enemies. This 

 circumstance has deceived the author of the MS. account of 

 those in Ceylon, who, speaking of the nests of these insects 

 in that island, which he describes as twelve feet high, ob- 

 serves, that " they may be considered as a large city, which 

 contains a great number of houses, and these houses an infinite 

 number of cells or apartments: — these cells appear to me to 

 communicate with each other, but not the houses. I have 

 convinced myself, by bringing together the broken walls of 

 one of the cavities of the nest or cone, that it does not com- 

 municate with any other, nor with the exterior of the cone — 

 a very curious circumstance, which I will not undertake to 

 explain. Other cavities communicate by a very narrow 

 tunnel." By not looking for subterranean communications, 

 he was probably led into this error. 



You have before heard of their diligence in building. Does 

 any accident happen to their various structures, or are they 

 dislodged from any of their covered ways, they are still more 

 active and expeditious in repairing. Getting out of sight as 

 soon as possible — and they run as fast or faster than any 

 insect of their size — in a single night they will restore a 

 gallery of three or four yards in length. If, attacking the 

 nest, you divide it in halves, leaving the royal chamber, and 

 thus lay open thousands of apartments, all will be shut up with 

 their sheets of clay by the next morning ; — nay, even if the 

 whole be demolished, provided the king and the queen be left, 

 every interstice between the ruins, at which either cold or wet 

 can possibly enter, will be covered, and in a year the building 

 will be raised nearly to its pristine size and grandeur. 



Besides building and repairing, a great deal of their time is 

 occupied in making necessary alterations in their mansion and 

 its approaches. The royal presence-chamber, as the female 

 increases in size, must be gradually enlarged, the nurseries 

 must be removed to a greater distance, the chambers and ex 

 terior of the nest receive daily accessions to provide for a daily 



vol. n. D 



