484- HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 



walls and stopping up chinks : the latter composes whole 

 stages or stories of it made into a sort of papier mdche, 

 with earth and spiders' web a . 



Some ants form their nests of the leaves of trees. One 

 of these was observed by Sir Joseph Banks in New 

 South Wales, which was formed by glueing together se- 

 veral leaves as large as a hand. To keep these leaves 

 in a proper position, thousands of ants united their 

 strength, and if driven away, the leaves spring back with 

 great violence 13 . 



The most profound philosopher, equally with the 

 most incurious of mortals, is struck with astonishment 

 on inspecting the interior of a bee-hive. He beholds a 

 city in miniature. He sees this city divided into regular 

 streets, these streets composed of houses constructed on 

 the most exact geometrical principles and the most sym- 

 metrical plan, some serving for store-houses for food, 

 others for the habitations of the citizens, and a few, much 

 more extensive than the rest, destined for the palaces of 

 the sovereign. He perceives that the substance of which 

 the whole city is built, is one which man, with all his 

 skill, is unable to fabricate ; and that the edifices in which 

 it is employed are such, as the most expert artist would 

 find himself incompetent to erect. And the whole is the 

 work of a society of insects ! " Quel abime (he exclaims 

 with Bonnet) aux yeux du sage qiiune ruche d'Abeilles ! 

 Quelle sagesse profonde se cache dans cet abime! Quel 

 philosophe osera le fonder ! " Nor have its mysteries yet 



a Huber, Recherclies, &c. 61. 



b Hawkesworth's CooPs Voyages, iii, 223. 



