■490 
WHITE AMTS. 
further off, will nevertheless carry on their subter- 
raneous galleries, and invade the goods and mer- 
chandise contained in it by sap and mine, and do 
great mischief if you are not very circumspect. 
u But to return to the cities, from whence these 
extraordinary expeditions and operations originate : 
It seems there is a degree of necessity for the gal- 
leries under the hills being thus large, being the 
great thoroughfare for all the labourers and soldiers 
going forth or returning upon any business what- 
ever, whether fetching clay, wood, water, or pro- 
visions ; 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 difficulty, and 
the soldiers can scarce 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 build- 
ing within their hill, which is flat on the upper 
surface and half an inch wide, and ascends gradually 
like a stair-case, 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 
