Let us make the floor stronger and dryer."
Dick Sand's orders were executed at once. Hercules, with his ax,
crumbled the first story of cells, which was composed of crisp red
clay. He thus raised, more than a foot, the interior part of the
swampy earth on which the ant-hill rested, and Dick Sand made sure
that the air could freely penetrate to the interior of the cone
through the orifice pierced at its base.
It was, certainly, a fortunate circumstance that the ant-hill had been
abandoned by the termites. With a few thousands of these ants, it
would have been uninhabitable. But, had it been evacuated for some
time, or had the voracious newroptera but just quitted it? It was not
superfluous to ponder this question.
Cousin Benedict was so much surprised at the abandonment, that he at
once considered the reason for it, and he was soon convinced that the
emigration had been recent.
In fact, he did not wait, but, descending to the lower part of the
cone, and taking the lantern, he commenced to examine the most secret
corners of the ant-hill. He thus discovered what is called the
"general store-house" of the termites, that is to say, the place where
these industrious insects lay up the provisions of the colony.
It was a cavity hollowed in the wall, not far from the royal cell,
which Hercules's labor had destroyed, along with the cells destined
for the young larvae.
Pages:
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313