17?0. ROUND THE WORLD. 209 



a man's head, and are built of a brittle substance, 

 which seems to consist of small parts of vegetables 

 kneaded together with a glutinous matter, which 

 their bodies probably supply ; upon breaking this 

 crust, innumerable cells, swarming with inhabitants, 

 appear in a great variety of winding directions, all 

 communicating with each other, and with several 

 apertures that lead to other nests upon the same 

 tree ; they have also one large avenue, or covered 

 way, leading to the ground, and carried on under it 

 to the other nest or house that is constructed there. 

 This house is generally at the root of a tree, but not 

 of that upon which their other dwellings are con- 

 structed : it is formed like an irregularly sided cone, 

 and sometimes is more than six feet high, and nearly 

 as much in diameter. Some are smaller, and these 

 are generally flat-sided, and very much resemble in 

 figure the stones which are seen in many parts of 

 England, and supposed to be the remains of druidical 

 antiquity. The outside of these is of well-tempered 

 clay, about two inches thick ; and within are the 

 cells, which have no opening outwards, but commu- 

 nicate only with the subterranean way to the houses 

 on the tree, and to the tree near which they are con- 

 structed, where they ascend up the root, and so up 

 the trunk and branches, under covered ways of the 

 same kind as those by which they descended from 

 their other dwellings. To these structures on the 

 ground they probably retire in the winter, or rainy 

 seasons, as they are proof against any wet that can 

 fall ; which those in the tree, though generally con- 

 structed under some overhanging branch, from the 

 nature and thinness of their crust or wall, cannot be. 

 The sea in this country is much more liberal of 

 food to the inhabitants than the land ; and though 

 fish is not quite so plenty here as they generally are 

 in higher latitudes, yet we seldom hauled the seine 

 without taking from fifty to two hundred weight. 

 They are of various sorts ; but, except the mullet, 



VOL. II. p 



