. r-54- -dir. smeathman’s Account oj 
on bringing them. to the microfcope, they evidently appeared to 
be a fpecies of mufhroom, in fhape like our eatable mufti* 
room in the young ftate in which it is pickled (tab. VIII. fig. 7.)? 
They appear, when whole, white like fnow. a little thawed 
and then frozen again, and when bruifed feem compofed of an 
infinite number of pellucid particles, approaching to oval forms ■ 
and difficult to feparate ; the mouldinefs feems* like wife -to be 
the fame kind of fubflanoe (I2 \ - 
The nurferies are inclofed in* chambers - of clay, like thofe 
which contain the provifions, but much larger* In the early 
flate of the nefl they are not bigger than an hazel-nut,, but in 
great hills are often as large as a child’s head of a- year old. 
The difpo fit-ion "of the interior parts of thefe hills is pretty 
much alike, except when fome infurmountable obflacle prevents ; 
for in fiance, when the king and queen have been ffrfl lodged near 
the foot of a rock .or of a tree, they are certainly built out of the 
ufual form; otherwife pretty nearly according to the following 
plan. 
The royal . chamber is fi’tuated at about a level with the fur- 
face of the ground, at an equal difiance from all the fdes of 
the building, and direa.ly under the apex.of the hill (tab. Vlli 
lig. 2. a, a • ) . 
( 12 ) Mr KONIG, who has examined thefe kind of nefts in the Eaft Indies, in an 
BiTay upon tile Termites, read before the Society of NaturaMs of Berlin, con- 
lectures, that thefe rauflirooms are the-food of the young infefts. - This fuppofition-s 
implies, that the old ones- haw a method of providing for and promoting theim 
growth; a circumtlance which, however Grange to thofe unacquainted -with the. 
Ihgacity of thefe Infe&s, I will venture to fay, from many other extraordinary fa&s • 
I have fe'en of them, is' not very improbable. 
N. Bf Mr, konig has not discovered the magazines -of provifions' in- the neftr 
which he opened, as far as -I am informed ; but I mnft obferve here, that what 1 
have learned of this-gentleman’s -account was from an extempore -tranflation .of the- 
heads* of ito- x 
Id* 
