WHITE ANTS. 
491 
columns which support the great arches, which 
must shorten the distance exceedingly to those la- 
bourers who have the eggs to carry from the royal 
chamber to some of the upper nurseries, which in 
some hills would be four or five feet in the straight- 
est line, and much more if carried through all the 
winding passages which lead through the inner 
chambers and apartments. I have a memorandum 
of one of these bridges, half an inch broad, a quar- 
ter of an inch thick, and ten inches long; making 
the side of an elliptic arch of proportionable size ; 
so that it is wonderful it did not fall over or break 
by its own weight before they got it joined to 
the side of the column above. It is strengthened 
by a small arch at the bottom, and had a hollow 
or groove all the length of the upper surface, either 
made purposely for the inhabitants to travel over 
with more safety, or else, which is more probable, 
worn so by frequent treading. 
“ I have observed before that there are of every 
species of termites three orders ; of these orders the 
working insects, or labourers , are always the most 
numerous ; in the Termes bellicosus there seem to 
be at the least one hundred labourers to one of the 
fighting insects or soldiers. They are in this state 
about one fourth of an inch long, and twenty-five 
of them weigh about a grain ; so that they are not 
so large as some of our ants. From their external 
habit and fondness for wood, they have been very ex- 
pressively called wood-lice by some people, and the 
whole genus has been known by that name, parti- 
