148 Mr, smeathman’s Account of 
Thefe buildings are ufually termed hills*, by natives as well 
as Grangers, from their outward appearance,, which is that of 
little hills more or lefs conical,, generally pretty much in the 
form of fugar loaves, and about ten' or twelve feet in perpen- 
dicular height above the common furface of the ground. (?) ( 8 ) 
tab*. VII, fig. 1 *. 
Thefe 
** them at. a diftance for an aflemblage of negroes Huts or a confideraBle village, . 
“■ and yet they were only the nefts of certain infe&s. They are round pyramids 
44 from eight to ten, feet high, upon nearly the fame bafe, with a.fmooth furface 
“ of rich clay, exceffively hard and' well built."' adansok’s Voyage to Senegal^ 
8 vo, p. 153 — 337. Voyage de Senegal, 4to r p.- 83 and 99... 
Note. What Mr.. a:>aj?son fays of. the-opening which gives ingrefs- and' regrefs- 
^ is manifeftly a.miftake,. arifing from the natural conclufion that thofe infedts had . 
fome way out and in to their neits,. without examining, where it was. It will: 
appear, by this account,, that, they have many tho.ufand ways out and in, , but all: 
fubterraneous. 
(7) joeson, in his Hiftory of Gambia, lays, 4 4 The Ant hills are remarkable - 
call up in thofe parts by. Pifmires,. fome of them twenty foot in height, of 
44 compaffe to contayne a dozen men, with the heat of the fambaked into that : 
44 hardnefle, that we ufed to hide ourfelves in the ragged toppes of them, when 
« vve took up hands to ffioot at deere or wild bealts.” purchas’s Pilgrims, voh. 
II. p. 1570. 
■ (8) “ The Ants make- nefts of- the earth about twice- the height: of a; man ”' 
jos-man’s Description of Guinea, p. 276 — 493. 
( 9 ) The labourers are not quite a. quarter, of an inch in; length.; however, for: 
the fake of avoiding fractions,, and of: comparing. them, and their, buddings. with 
thofe of mankind more eafily,. I effimate their length : ow height ifo> much, and- 
the human ftandard of length or- height, alfo to avoid fra&ions, at fix feet, which : 
is likewife above the height of men;. If then one labourer is “to one-fourth of. 
an inch rr to fix feet,, four labourers, are rr to one inch in height, xr 2-4 feet, 
which multiplied by 12 inches, gives the comparative height of a foot of their 
building xr 288 feet of the building of men, which multiplied by 10. feet, the fup- 
pofed average height of one of their nefts is xx 2880 of our feet, which is 240 feet 
more than half a mile, or near five times the height of the great pyramid ; and, as it 
is 
