WHITE ANTS, 299 



leries under the hills bemg thus large, since they are 

 the great thoroughfares for all the labourers and sol- 

 diers going forth or returning, 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 woulcl 

 not be able to carry on their building with so much 

 facility, as they ascend a perpendicular with great 

 difficulty, and the soldiers can scarcely do it at all. 

 It is on this account that sometimes 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 \vinding roada 

 which are cut on the sides of hills and mountains, 

 that would otherwise he 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 great 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 

 that support the great arches. This contrivance 

 must shorten the distance exceedingly to those la- 

 bourers who have the eggs to carry from the royal 

 chamber to some of the upper nurseries, which in 

 some hills would be four or five feet in tlie straight- 

 est line, and much more if carried through all the 

 winding passages leading through the inner cham- 

 bers and apartments. Mr Smeathman found one 

 of these bridges, half an inch broad, a quarter of an 

 inch thick, and ten inches long, making the side of an 

 elliptic arch of proportionable size; so that it is won- 

 derful it did not fall over or break by its own weight 

 before they got it joined to the side of the column 

 above. 



