"Now, boys, as I have told you about the kinds of different work which these ants do, we will go on, and I will tell you about the inside of the city. The first thing to be done is to build a house for the king and queen. This is the first house built in the city, and always stands in the centre, directly under the point of the roof or top of the outside wall. It is built nearly on a level with the ground, and is shaped very much like a long oven, or the half of an egg split through the long way. The floor is exactly level, and about an inch thick; the roof is about the same thickness. The doors are on a level with the floor, and just large enough to let one of the labourers go in."

"Why, Uncle Philip, how do the king and queen ever get out then."

"They never do get out, boys; they live in that house always, and they are not the first kings and queens who have found that a palace is sometimes a prison. Just around this house of the king and queen are other houses built of clay, arched at the top, and of different shapes. These are for the servants or labouring ants, who remove the eggs of the queen as fast as she discharges them. The soldiers also live in these houses. Next to these are the magazines, that is, the houses where they keep their food, such as dry juices of trees and gums; and mixed up with these are the nurseries. These are made by the labourers, and are different from all the other buildings, for they are made of wood gnawed or broken into fine threads, and joined together with some kind of gum, and around each of them there is a case of clay. These nurseries are to carry the eggs into for the young ants to be hatched. Between all these different houses or parts there are thousands of galleries or ways, which run among them and separate them from each other, and these may be called the streets of the city. These streets run in all directions, and extend as far as the outside wall; and houses are built on top of houses, and streets run over streets, until they reach up as high as two-thirds of the inside wall. But under the top of their outside case they always leave a large open place that is never filled up with houses. And around this space they will build three or four large arches, sometimes two or three feet high; these I suppose are to prevent the houses from falling in towards the centre of the city, which is an open space, and on the other side they are fastened to the outside walls, so that these houses are very firm."

"And what is all this made of, Uncle Philip?"

"All of clay, except the nurseries, which I told you were made of wood and gum. Over the house of the king and queen there is a sort of flat floor, some distance above it, with nurseries and magazines between the under side of it and the top of the queen's house. This floor will not let the water through it, so as to wet the palace where the king and queen live, but will turn it off into large trenches or gutters under ground, of which I will speak directly. The bridge I told you of they build from this floor in the open space, directly under the top or dome of the outside wall; it rises up and is joined to some hole in the side wall of the houses above it."

"How large is it, Uncle Philip?"

"Why, sometimes it is half an inch broad, a quarter of an inch thick, and ten inches long; all made of clay, so that it is very strange how they manage to join it to the wall without its falling down by its own weight while they were building it."

"And what do you suppose this bridge is for, Uncle Philip?"

"Why, I think there can be no doubt what it is for. When the city has been growing for some time, some of the nurseries will be very high up above the queen's house; but the labourers have to carry her eggs into them, no matter how far off they may be. If they carry them through all the streets, they will have to walk as many as fifteen or twenty feet, for it would be five or six feet in a perfectly straight line, and these streets are very crooked; but if they make a bridge in the open space in the centre, they can then go from the queen's house over the bridge, and get to the upper nurseries without travelling more than two feet. So they made the bridge to shorten the way, to be sure."

"This is very wonderful: but you said something about large trenches or gutters underground; what are they, Uncle Philip?"

"These galleries lead from the city under ground, and are as large as the bore of a large cannon; they are thirteen inches across, and more than a hundred yards long. I have already told you that the labourers never come out into the light, when they can help it; and these underground ways are the great roads to the city, to fetch in clay, or wood, or water, or provisions: and now I will tell you another thing which shows a great deal of sense. As some of their houses are very high up, you know they would find it very hard to climb up through all the streets with a heavy load in a straight line; so when these large ways underground reach the outside wall, they just come through and keep on winding around the inside of it like a corkscrew all the way to the top; and there are other galleries opening from it at different places into the city. One thing has been noticed about these ants; they can scarcely climb at all up a perpendicular wall. Therefore on the upright side of any part of the city you may see a road made, standing out from the wall like a ledge; it is flat on the top, and half an inch wide, and goes up gradually like a stair-case, or like a road cut out on the side of a mountain.

"Here is a picture of one of their cities cut straight down through the middle. At the bottom, in the centre, is the queen's house; over it is a floor, and the two crooked things you see rising up from the floor, are bridges."

"But, Uncle Philip, you said you would tell us about the soldiers and labourers coming out when the city is attacked."

"Yes, I did. As soon as a hole is made in the outside wall, you will see a soldier run out, and walk about as if to look around; but as he is blind, it cannot be to see what the danger is. He may have some way though of finding out without seeing. Presently he will go in, as if to tell the others, and then out pour the soldiers in great numbers, as fast as the hole will let them; and just as long as you strike the outside wall, they will continue to rush out. They seem to be in a terrible passion. They are in such a hurry that sometimes they slip, and roll down the outside of the hill; but they jump up again instantly, and begin to bite every thing they run against, for they are blind and cannot tell a friend from an enemy."

"Do they bite hard, Uncle Philip?"

"Very hard indeed. They make their hooked jaws, which are like awls, you know, meet at every bite; and if it should happen to be a man's leg they get hold of, you would see upon his stocking a spot of blood an inch long. At every bite too you may hear their jaws snapping together and making quite a noise. Some of them too (perhaps they are the officers) are constantly beating with their awls upon the outside wall, and make a sound something quicker and sharper than the ticking of a watch. You may hear it at a distance of three or four feet. When these biters lay hold, nothing will make them let go; you must tear them away by pieces. After you stop striking the wall, in about half an hour they seem to get over their rage and go back into the city, and then out come the labourers. While the noise continues you will not see one of them; they all fled at the first appearance of danger. But now they come, each one with a bundle of mortar in his mouth, ready made; and they stick it on the hole so fast, and with such order, that though thousands and thousands are at work they never interrupt each other. And while the labourers are busy, if you look you may commonly see a soldier or two walking about; but they never touch the mortar, nor help in any way to mend the hole. One of these soldiers always stands near the spot where the labourers are at work, and every now and then turns slowly around, and frequently lifts up his head, and with his awls beats upon the building, and makes a sort of hissing noise. As soon as that is done you may hear a loud hiss from all the labourers, both on the outside of the wall and from the inside of the city, and then the labourers run faster, and work as quick again. If you attack the nest again, away run all the labourers as fast as their legs will carry them, and out pour the soldiers as before; and the same thing is always seen upon every attack, of soldiers to fight and labourers to work."

"Well, Uncle Philip, this is a very strange story; much more interesting than any we have yet heard."

"I thought it would please you, boys; but there are still stranger things among animals, and perhaps you will say so when you know more.

"But it is now time to return home; so take in the kite and let us be going."