THE TERMITES AT HOME. 603 



in various places, and into the lower half of the building, or communicating with every 

 part of it by other smaller circular passages. The necessity for the vast size of the 

 main galleries underground, evidently arises from the circumstance of their being the 

 great thoroughfare for the inhabitants, by which they fetch their clay, wood, water, or 

 provisions, and their gradual ascent is requisite, as the termites can only with great 

 difficulty climb perpendicularly. 



It may be imagined that such works require an enormous population for their con- 

 struction ; and, indeed, the manner in which an infant colony of termites is formed 

 and grows, until becoming, in its turn, the parent of new migrations, is not the least 

 wonderful part of this wonderful insect's history. At the end of the dry season, as 



