68 1'HILOSOl'HICAL TRANSACTIONS. [ANNO 1781. 



up in their mouths to the consistence of mortar, becomes that solid clay or 

 stone of which their hills and all their buildings, except their nurseries, are 

 composed. Other galleries again ascend, and lead out horizontally on every 

 side, and are carried underground near to the surface a vast distance: for if you 

 destroy all the nests within 100 yards of your house, the inhabitants of those 

 which are left unmolested farther off, will still carry on their subterraneous galle- 

 ries, and invade the goods and merchandizes contained in it by sap and mine, and 

 do great mischief, if you are not very circumspect. 



But to return to the cities whence these extraordinary expeditions and opera- 

 tions originate: it seems there is a degree of necessity for the galleries under the 

 hills being thus large, being the great thoroughfares for all the labourers and 

 soldiers, going forth or returning on any business whatever, whether fetching 

 clay, wood, water, or provisions ; and they are certainly well calculated for the 

 purposes to which they are applied, by the spiral slope which is given them; for 

 if they were perpendicular, the labourers would not be able to carry on their 

 building with so much facility, as they ascend a perpendicular with great diffi- 

 culty, and the soldiers can scarcely do it at all. It is on this account that some- 

 times a road like a ledge is made on the perpendicular side of any part of the 

 building within their hill, which is flat on the upper surface, and half an inch 

 wide, and ascends gradually like a staircase, or like those roads which are cut on 

 the sides of hills and mountains, that would otherwise be inaccessible: by which, 

 and similar contrivances, they travel with great facility to every interior part. 



This too is probably the cause of their building a kind of bridge of one vast 

 arch, which answers the purpose of a flight of stairs from the floor of the area 

 to some opening on the side of one of the columns which support the great 

 arches, which must shorten the distance exceedingly to those labourers who have 

 the eggs to carry from the royal chamber to some of the upper nurseries, which 

 in some hills would be 4 or 5 feet in the straightest line, and much more if car- 

 ried through all the winding passages which lead through the inner chambers 

 and apartments. Mr. S. had a memorandum of one of these bridges, half an 

 inch broad, a quarter of an inch thick, and 10 inches long, making the side of 

 an elliptic arch of proportionable size; so that it is wonderful it did not fall over 

 or break by its own weight before they got it joined to the side of the column 

 above. It was strengthened by a small arch at the bottom, and had a hollow or 

 groove all the length of the upper surface, either made purposely for the inhabi- 

 tants to travel over with more safety, or else, which is not improbable, worn so 

 by frequent treading. 



The nests before described are so remarkable on account of their size, that 

 travellers have seldom, where they were to be seen, taken notice of any other; 

 and have generally, when speaking of white ants, described them as inhabitants 



