ARCHITECTURE OF ANTS. 43 
horizontally, at half an inch distance 
from the ground, formed, in crossing 
each other, an oblong parallelogram. 
The industrious insect commenced, by 
placing earth in the several angles of this 
carpentering work, and all along the little 
beams of which it was composed. ‘The 
same workman afterwards placed several 
rows of the same materials against each 
other, when the roof became very dis- 
tinct. On perceiving the possibility of 
profiting by another plant, to support a 
vertical wall, it began laying the founda- 
tions of it ; other ants having by this time 
arrived, finished in common what this 
had commenced. * 
* I have often been surprised at the ingenuity of 
these little creatures, in availing themselves of con- 
tiguous blades of grass, stalks of corn, &c., when 
they wish to enlarge the boundaries of their abode. 
As these are usually met with in the erect position, 
they are admirably calculated for pillars; they, 
therefore coat them over with a fine paste of earth, 
giving them, by additional layers, the solidity they 
judge necessary for the work on which they are 
engaged: they then leave them to be consolidated 
by the wind, and afterwards spring a number of 
