CH. VIII.] THE WHITE ANT. 153 



not unlike a very large hay-cock. " But of all ex- 

 traordinary things I observed," says Adanson, " no- 

 thing- struck me more than certain eminences, which, 

 by their height and regularity, made me take them 

 at a distance for an assemblage of negro huts, or a 

 considerable village, and yet they are only the nests 

 of certain insects."* 



Smeathmanhas drawn a comparison between these 

 labours of the termes and the works of man, taking 

 the termes' labourer at one-fourth of an inch long, 

 and man at six feet high. When a termes has built 

 one inch, or four times its height, it is equivalent to 

 twenty-four feet, or four times the height of man. 

 One inch of the termes' building being proportionate 

 to twenty-four feet of human building, twelve 

 inches, or one foot, of the former must be propor- 

 tionate to twelve times twenty-four, or two hundred 

 and eighty-eight feet, of the latter; consequently, 

 when the white ant has built one foot, it has, in 

 point of labour, equalled the exertions of a man 

 who has built two hundred and eighty-eight feet ; 

 but as the ant-hills are ten feet high, it is evident 

 that human beings must produce a work of two 

 thousand eight hundred and eighty feet in height, to 

 compete with the industry of their brother insect. 

 The Great Pyramid is about one-fifth of this height ; 

 and as the solid contents of the ant-hill are in the 

 same proportion, they must equally surpass the 

 solid contents of that ancient wonder of the world. 



Every one of these hills consists of two distinct 

 parts, the exterior and the interior. 



The exterior consists of one shell formed in the 

 manner of a dome, large and strong enough to en- 

 close and shelter the interior from the vicissitudes 

 of the weather, and the inhabitants from the attacks 

 of natural or accidental enemies. It is, therefore, 

 in every instance, much stronger than the interior 



* Voyage to Senegal. 



