"Uncle Philip, what is all this built of?" "It is built of clay, which the ant makes almost as hard as stone." "Are they strong, Uncle Philip? "So strong, boys, that five men may stand on them; and it is a common thing for the wild bulls to get upon them and look out, while the rest of the herd are feeding below." "Why, how high are they?" "Oh, of different heights; some as many as five or six feet, others are twelve, and the largest are as high as twenty feet, and would easily hold a dozen men." "And how large are the ants, Uncle Philip?" "Not above a quarter of an inch high as they stand. Now, boys, just compare the size of one of these nests with the size of the ant that made it; and it is quite as large in proportion as the city of New-York is when compared to a man's size; yes, it is a great deal larger in proportion. These nests are sometimes five hundred times as high as the ants which build them: now suppose that men built their houses five hundred times as high as themselves, and as large at the foundation in proportion to their height, what monstrous buildings they would be! But let me go on. This outside shell, which I have been telling you how they make, is nothing but the wall of the city; the buildings are all inside of that." "But, Uncle Philip, there is one thing I have been thinking of which would make it more like a city still. But I hardly think they can have that." "What is it?" "Why in a city, you know, where there are a great many people, there are a great many trades: some do one thing and some do another to get money." "Yes, that is true; and I am glad that you mentioned it, because it reminds me of one thing I intended to tell you about these ants. Now, it would not be reasonable, you know, to expect the ants to have many different kinds of business to do, as the people in New-York have; but still, boys, they are not all alike, and they do have work of different kinds. There are in the city of the white ants a king and a queen, and soldiers, and labourers, or workmen, and all these are different. Here are pictures which will show them all to you. This is the king. [Illustration: King of the Termites.] At first he has four wings, but soon loses them. He never grows any larger after he loses them. The king may be known by his having two large eyes. Here is the queen. She is the mother of the whole city; and you see what a large body she has. It is full of eggs, and eighty thousand will come from her in twenty-four hours. She also has two eyes. [Illustration: Queen of the Termites.] "Here is a soldier: he has a large head, armed with two hooks, shaped like a crooked awl, and very sharp. [Illustration: Soldier of the Termites.]