All the species of termites are miners, but the greater number are also architects and masons. A few make their nests round a branch of a tree. This nest is of enormous dimensions: it is as large as a tun. The illustration (PLATE X.)--after a drawing in Smeathman's work--shows a nest of the _Termes bellicosus_, composed of bits of wood firmly stuck together with gum. Above their subterranean galleries the greater part of termites construct vast edifices, which contain their magazines and nurseries. The _Termes mordax_ and _Termes atrox_ raise perfect columns, surmounted by capitals which project beyond them and give them the appearance of monstrous mushrooms. These columns attain a height of twenty inches, with a diameter of five; they are constructed with a black clay, which, worked up by the insects, acquires great hardness. The interior is hollow, or rather perforated with irregular cells; but the most curious edifices are those of _Termes bellicosus_. These are irregularly conical mounds, flanked by a certain number of turrets, decreasing in height. Smeathman gives them a height of from ten to twelve feet; but Jobson[113] affirms that he has seen some as high as twenty feet. If men constructed monuments so disproportionate to their size, the great pyramid of Giseh, instead of being 146 mètres in height, would be 1,600, and would be higher than the Puy-de-Dôme! [113] "History of Gambia." These knolls of earth are of a solidity which will bear any trial. Not only can many men mount on them without shaking them, but buffaloes establish themselves upon them as watch-towers, from which they can see over the high grass which covers the plain, if the lion or the panther is threatening them. These edifices are hollow; but their sides are from fifteen to twenty inches thick, and are as hard as a rock. They are hollowed out into galleries, which connect them with the underground dwelling. Under the dome is a pretty large vacant space, a sort of top storey or attic, occupying one-third of the total height, and which keeps up in the edifice a more uniform temperature than if all the block had been filled up. On a level with the ground is the royal cell, oblong, with a flat floor and a rounded ceiling, and pierced with round windows. All round are distributed the offices; they are rooms also with rounded and vaulted ceilings, communicating with each other by corridors. On the sides rise the magazines, with their backs placed against the walls of the house; they are filled with gums and with vegetable juices solidified and in powder. On the ceiling of the royal chamber rise pillars of about two feet in height, which support the egg rooms. These are little cells with partitions of saw-dust stuck together with gum, which separate at the opening the large chambers from the clay halls. Placed between the attics and the great nave surmounting the royal hall, the nursery is in the most desirable position possible for uniformity of temperature