90 OAK APHIS. 



wood-land walkers. Without, a mound of confusion, within 

 they are a marvel of arrangement. The conical coping which 

 presents itself to our eye, as the roof of one of these sylvan 

 habitations, is indeed the roof, but may also be considered as 

 the upper story, or perhaps several, which contain within them 

 various chambers, one in the centre larger and loftier than the 

 rest, with passages of communication, besides others which 

 lead to the exterior of the nest. The outer entrances of these 

 various avenues, at other times open, are carefully barricaded, 

 not only in winter, but in rainy weather, and also of a night. 

 To construct fabrics like these, or any fabrics at all, out of 

 such materials as straw, sticks, grains, and other miscellaneous 

 substances, all dry, light, and unadhesive, would seem a 

 wonder, would be in fact an utter impossibility, but for the 

 mortar employed also by our rustic builders. This is composed 

 of earth, that chiefly thrown out in hollowing the ground for 

 the foundation of their edifice, which, tempered with rain-water 

 and mingled with the substances above mentioned, render 

 them capable of sufficient compaction to maintain their places 

 and resist weather. 



Beside and beneath these upper chambers, the attics we 

 may call them, of the Wood-ant's dwelling, it contains, exca- 

 vated within the ground, another set of apartments with 

 convenient passages, to which the inhabitants all retire on 

 the appearance of winter, therein to slumber with more or less 

 pertinacity according to the severity or mildness of the season. 



