OF NATURAL HISTORY. 569 



Monf. Adanfon, their number, magnitude, and clofenefs of 

 fituation, make them appear like villages of the Negroes. 



* But, of all the extraordinary things I obferved,' fays Monf« 

 Adanfon, * nothing ftruck me more than certain eminences, 



< which by their height and regularity, made me take them, 

 ' at a diftance, for an afTemblage of Negroe huts, or a con- 



< liderable village, and yet they v\^ere only the nefts of cer- 



< tain infedls. Thefe nefls are round pyramids, from eicrlit 



* to ten feet high, upon nearly the fame bafe, with a IVnooth 

 ' furface of rich clay, exceffively hard and well built*.' Job- 

 fon, in his hiftory of Gambia, tells us, that « the ant-hills are 

 « remarkably caft up in thofe parts by pifmires, fomc of 

 ' them twenty foot in height, of compaflb to contayne a doz- 



< en of men, with the heat of the fun baked into that hard- 

 ^ nefle, that we ufed to hide ourfelves in the ragged toppes 



< of them, when we took up ftands to fhoot at deere or wild 



* beafts -]-.' Mr.Bofman remarks, in his defcription of Guinea, 

 that ' the ants make nefts of the earth about twice the 



< height of a man :{:.' 



Each of thefe hills is compoled of an exterior and an inte- 

 rior part. The exterior cover is a large clay-fliell, which is 

 fhaped like a dome. Its ftrength and magnitude are fuffi- 

 cient to inclofe and protege the interior building from the in- 

 juries of the weather, and to defend its numerous inhabitants 

 from the attacks of natural or accidental enemies. The ex- 

 ternal dome or cover is, therefore, always much ftronger 

 than the internal building, which is the habitation of the In-, 

 fects, and is divided with wonderful artifice and regularity 

 into a vaft number of apartments for the reiidence and ac- 

 commodation of the king and queen, for the nuriing of their 

 progeny, and for magazines, which are always v/ell ftorcd 

 with provilions. 



* Adanfon's Voyage to Senegal, 8vo, page 153.- — 337. Voyage de Senegal 

 4to, page 83.-99. • 



t Purchases Pilgrims^ vol. S, page 1570, \ Page 276,-493. 



