602 



THE TROPICAL WORLD. 



habited for some time, they had formed a clay nest in one of the corners, communi- 

 cating with similar constructions under the roof, and the whole colony was now busy 

 migrating. They formed a column about a foot and a half broad, and their multi- 

 tudes poured along in one continuous stream, regardless of the fate of thousands of 

 their companions, whom the naturalist scalded to death with boiling water. Their 

 march ceased only with the dawn of day, and several baskets were filled with the 

 bodies of the slain. 



But if the greedy termite destroys like the bore-worm many a useful work of man, 

 its ravages are perhaps more than compensated by its services in removing decayed 

 vegetable substances from the face of the earth, and thus contributing to the purity of 

 the air and the beauty of the landscape. If the forests of the tropical world, where 

 thousands of gigantic trees succumb to the slow ravages of time, or are suddenly pros- 

 trated by lightning or the hurricane, still appear in all the verdure of perpetual youth, 

 it is chiefly to the unremitting labors of the termites that they are indebted for their 

 freshness. 



Though belonging to a different order of the insect world, the economy of the 

 termites is very similar to that of the real ants. They also form communities, divided 

 into distinct orders — laborers (larvce), soldiers (neuters'), perfect insects; and they 

 also erect buildings, but of a far more astonishing structure. Several of their species 

 erect high, dome-like edifices, rising from the plain, so that at first sight they might be 

 mistaken for the hamlets of the negroes ; others build on trees, often at a considerable 

 hight above the ground. These sylvan abodes are frequently the size of a hogshead, 

 and are more generally found in the new world. 



The clay-built citadels or domes of the Termes helUcosus, a common species on the 

 west coast of Africa, attain a hight of twelve feet, and are constructed with such 

 strength that the traveler often ascends them to have an uninterrupted view of the 

 grassy plain around. Only the under part of the mound is inhabited by the termites, 

 the upper portion serving principally as a defence from the weather, and to keep up 

 in the lower part the warmth and moisture necessary to the hatching of the eggs and 

 cherishing of the young ones. In the center, and almost on a level with the ground, 

 is placed the sanctuary of the whole community — the large cell, where the queen 

 resides with her consort, and which she is doomed never to quit again, after having 

 been once enclosed in it, since the portals soon prove too narrow for her rapidly 

 increasing bulk. Encircling the regal apartment extends a labyrinth of countless 

 chambers, in which a numerous army of attendants and soldiers is constantly in wait- 

 ing. The space between these chambers and the external wall of the citadel is filled 

 with other cells, partly destined for the eggs and young larvae, partly for store-rooms. 

 The subterranean passages which lead from the mound are hardly less remarkable than 

 the building itself. Perfectly cylindrical, and lined with a cement of clay, similar to 

 that of which the hill is formed, they sometimes measure a foot in diameter. They 

 run in a sloping direction, under the bottom of the hill, to a depth of three or four 

 feet, and then ramifying horizontally into numerous branches, ultimately rise near to 

 the surface at a considerable distance. At their entrance into the interior of the hill, 

 they are connected with a great number of smaller galleries, which ascend the inside 

 of the outer shell in a spiral manner, and winding round the whole building to the 

 top, intersect each other at diflferent bights, opening either immediately into the dome 



