HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 517 



and structures of man : for, did these creatures equal 

 him in size, retaining their usual instincts and activity, 

 their buildings would soar to the astonishing height of 

 more than half a mile, and their tunnels would expand 

 to a magnificent cylinder of more than three hundred 

 feet in diameter; before which the pyramids of Egypt 

 and the aqueducts of Rome would lose all their cele- 

 brity, and dwindle into nothings^. So that when in the 

 commencement of my last letter I promised to intro- 

 duce you to insects whose labours produced edifices 

 more astonishing than those of the mightiest Egyptian 

 monarchs, the pyramids, my promise, whatever you 

 then thought of it, was the reverse of hyperbolical. 



I am, &c. 



* The most elevated of the pyrataitls of Tgypt is not more than 600 

 feet high, which, setting the average height of man at only tive feet, is 

 oot more than 120 times the height of the workmen employed. Whereas 

 the nests of the Termites being at least twelve feet high, and the insects 

 themselves not exceeding a quarter of an inch in stature, their edifice is 

 upwards of 500 times the height of the builders ; which, supposing them 

 of human dimensions, would be more than half a mile. The shaft of the 

 Roman aqueducts was lofty enough to permit a man on horseback to 

 Jrave! in them. 



END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. 



PRINTED BY RICHARD AND ARTHUR TAYLOR, LONDON. 



