HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 513 



tures of man : for, did these creatures equal him in size, 

 retaining their usual instincts and activity, their build- 

 ings would soar to the astonishing height of more than 

 half a mile, and their tunnels would expand to a mag- 

 nificent cylinder of more than three hundred feet in 

 diameter ; before which the pyramids of Egypt and the 

 aqueducts of Rome would lose all their celebrity, and 

 dwindle into nothings*. So that when in the commence- 

 ment of my last letter I promised to introduce you to 

 insects whose labours produced edifices more astonishing 

 than those of the mightiest Egyptian monarchs, the py- 

 ramids, my promise, whatever you then thought of it, 

 was the reverse of hyperbolical. 



I am, &c. 



'* The most elevated of the pyramids of Egypt is not more than 

 600 feet high, which, setting the average height of man at only five 

 feet, is not more than 120 times the height of the workmen em- 

 ployed. 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 travel in them. 



END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. 



VOL. I. 2 L 



