the Termites of Africa and other hot . Climates. i.$g- 
the talk, and muft therefore refer to the different figures,., 
which,, however extraordinary, fcarce do juflice to the fubjedls,. 
The nefts before defcribed are fo remarkable on account of 
their fize, that travellers have feldom, where they were to be 
feen, taken notice of any other ; and have generally, when 
fpeaking of white Ants, defcribed them as inhabitants of thole 
hills,- Thofe, however, which are built by the fmaller fpecies 
of thofe infefts, are very numerous, and Tome of them exceed- 
ingly worth our attention ; one fort in particular, which from 
their form I have named turret nefts. Thefe are a great deaf 
lefs than the foregoing, and indeed much lefs in proportion to 
the fize of the builders; but their external form is more 
curious, and their folidity confidered they are prodigious 
buildings for fo fmall an animalT). 
Thefe buildings are upright cylinders compofed of a well- 
tempered black earth or clay, about three quarters of a yard 
high, and covered with a roof of the fame material in the 
fhape of a cone,, who fe bafe extends over and hangs down, 
three or four inches wider than the perpendicular fides of the 
cylinder, fo that mod of them referable in fhape the body 
of a round wind-mill ; but fome of the roofs have fo little ele- 
vation in the middle, that they are pretty much in the fhape 
of the top of a full-grown mufhroom (tab. IX. fig. i.)' : 
Aden one of thefe turrets is finiflied, it is not altered or en- 
larged ; but when no longer capable of containing the commu- 
nity, the foundation of another is laid within a few inches of" 
it. Sometimes, , though but rarely, . the fecond is begun before 
the firfl is finifhed, and a third before they have completed the 
( r 3) If their height is eftknated and 'computed by the fize- of the builders, and \ 
compared with ours upon the like fcale ; each of them is : four or five times the 
height of the monument, and a great many times its folid contents, 
fecoJidh: 
