316 FORMIC MASONRY. 



chambers, with vaulted ceilings, resting upon a "solid base," 

 while, in others, the work of one of the cleverest and eke the 

 smallest of the mason tribes,* our admiration is excited by 

 " storied buildings, with partitions but half a line in thickness, 

 the substance of which they are composed being so finely 

 ground that the inner walls present one smooth unbroken 

 surface. The arched ceilings which cover the most spacious 

 apartments are, in these marvellous interiors, supported either 

 by little columns, slender walls, or by regular buttresses." 



From the observations of lluber, who thus describes them, it 

 \\oidd appear that these accomplished builders, being provided 

 uith no other cement, are indebted to the rains and dews of 

 heaven for sufficient moisture to ensure the coherence of their 

 building particles ; and they owe to the rain a further obliga- 

 tion for consolidating, when finished, their delicate walls, which 

 one might suppose, ignorantly, that a summer shower, with its 

 " Niagaras aux fowmis," would be much more likely to wasli 

 down and annihilate. 



We can devote now but little more attention to insect 

 masonry, or to the specimens of that art here assembled ; but 

 in addition to solitary wasps, and solitary bees, and social ants, 

 which exercise their skill in this vocation, there are other 

 labourers in the same, whose works we must not wholly over- 

 look, though they are more simple, and performed under a 

 more selfish impetus, for the purpose, namely, of self-preserva- 



bmnnea. 



