In the infant ftate of the colony, it is not above an inch, or
thereabouts, in length; but in time will be increafed to fix or
eight inches, or more, in the clear, being always in proportion
to the fize o f the queen, who, increafing in bulk as in age, at
length requires a chamber of fuch dimenfions..
The floor is perfectly horizontal, and in large hillocks, fome-
times an inch thick and upward of folid clay; the roof alfo, which
is one folid and well-turned oval arch, is generally o f about the
fame folidity, but in fome places it is not a quarter o f an inch
thick ; this is on the fides where it joins the floor, and where the
doors or entrances are made level therewith, at pretty equal
diftances from each other,
Thefe entrances will not admit any animal larger than the
fbldiers or labourers; fo that the king, and the queen (who is, when
full grown, a thoufand times the weight o f a king) can never
poflibly go out,.
The royal chamber, if in a large hillock, is furrounded by an
innumerable quantity o f others, of different fizes, fhapes, and
dimenfions; but all o f them arched in one way or another, fome-
times circular, and fometimes elliptical or oval,
Thefe either open into each other, or communicate by paflages
as wide, and being always empty, are evidently made for the
fbldiers and attendants; o f whom, it will foon appear, great
numbers are necelfary, and of courfe always in waiting.
Thefe apartments are joined by the magazines and nurferies;
the former are chambers o f clay, and are always well filled with
provifions, which to the naked eye feem to confift of the rafpings
o f wood and plants, which the termites deftroy, but are found in
the microfcope to be principally the gums or infpiflated juices of
plants. Thefe are thrown together in little mafles, fome of which
are finer than others, and refemble the fugar about preferved
fruits; others are like tears of gum, one quite tranfparent, another
like amber, a third brown, and a fourth quite opake, as we
fee often in parcels o f ordinary gums.
Thefe magazine» are intermixed with the nurferies, which are
buildings totally different from the reft o f the apartments; for
thefe are compofed entirely of wooden materials, feemingly joined
together with gums. They are called nurferies becaufe they are
invariably occupied by the eggs and young ones, which appear at
firft in the fhape of labourers, but white as fnow. Thefe buildings
are exceedingly compaft, and divided into many very fmall
irregular-fhaped chambers, not one o f which is to be found of
half an inch in width ; they are placed all round the royal apartments,
and as near as poffible to them.
When the neft is in the infant ftate, the nurferies are clofe to
the royal chamber ; but as in procefs o f time the queen enlarges,
it- is neceffary to enlarge the chamber for her accommodation;
and as fire then lays a greater number o f eggs, and requires a
greater number o f attendants, fo it is neceffary to enlarge and in-
creafe the number o f the adjacent apartmentsfor which purpofe,
the fmall nurferies, which are firft built, are taken to pieces,
O o 2 rebuilt