which is situated above the royal chamber. It is likewise water-proof, and so constructed, that, if water gets admittance, it runs off by subterraneous passages, which are cylindrical, and some of them so much as even to be thirteen inches in diameter. These subterraneous passages are thickly lined with the same kind of clay of which the hill is composed: they ascend the internal part of the external shell in a spiral form, and, winding round the whole building up to the top, intersect and communicate with each other at different heights. From every part of these large galleries a number of pipes, or smaller galleries, leading to different apartments of the building, proceed. There are likewise a great many which lead downward, by sloping descents, three and four feet perpendicular under ground, among the gravel, from which the labouring ants select the finer parts; which, after being worked up in their mouths to the consistence of mortar, become that solid clay, or stone, of which their hills, and every apartment of their buildings except the nurseries, are composed. Other galleries ascend and lead out horizontally on every side, and are carried under ground, but near the surface, to great distances, for the purpose of foraging.

When a breach is made in one of the walls by an ax, or other instrument, the first object that attracts attention is the behaviour of the soldiers or fighting insects. Immediately after the blow is given, a soldier comes out, walks

about the breach, and seems to examine the nature of the enemy, or the cause of the attack. He then goes into the hill, gives the alarm, and in a short time, large bodies rush out as fast as the breach will permit. It is not easy to describe the fury that actuates these fighting insects. In their eagerness to repel the enemy, they frequently tumble down the sides of the hill, but recover themselves very quickly, and bite every thing they encounter. This biting, joined to the striking of their forceps upon the building, makes a crackling or vibrating noise, which is somewhat shriller and quicker than the ticking of watch, and may be heard at the distance of several feet. While the attack proceeds, they are in the most violent bustle and agitation. If they get hold of any part of a man's body, they instantly make a wound which gives some pain. When they attack the leg, the stain of blood upon the stocking extends more than an inch in width. They make their hooked jaws meet at the first stroke, and never quit their hold, but will suffer themselves to be pulled away piece after piece, without any attempt to escape. On the other hand, if a person keeps out of their reach, and gives them no farther disturbance, in less than half an hour they retire into the nest, as if they supposed the monster that damaged their castle had fled. Before the whole of the soldiers have got in, the labouring insects are all in motion, and hasten towards

the breach, each of them having a quantity of tempered mortar in his mouth. This mortar they stick upon the breach as fast as they arrive, and perform the operation with so much dispatch and facility, that, notwithstanding the immensity of their numbers, they never stop or embarrass one another. During this scene of apparent hurry and confusion, the spectator is agreeably surprised, when he perceives a regular wall gradually rising and filling up the chasm. While the labourers are thus employed, almost all the soldiers remain within, except here and there one, who saunters about among six hundred or a thousand labourers, but never touches the mortar.. One soldier, however, always takes his station close to the wall that the labourers are building. This soldier turns himself leisurely on all sides, and, at intervals of a minute or two, raises his head, beats upon the building with his forceps, and makes the vibrating noise formerly mentioned. A loud hiss instantly issues from the inside of the dome and all the subterraneous caverns and passages. That this hiss proceeds from the labourers is apparent; for, at every signal of this kind, they work with redoubled quickness and alacrity. A renewal of the attack, however, instantly changes the scene. "On the first stroke," Mr. Smeathman remarks, "the labourers run into the many pipes and galleries with which the building is perforated, which they do so quickly that they seem to vanish; for ins

a few seconds all are gone, and the soldiers rush out as numerous and as vindictive as before. On finding no enemy they return again leisurely into the hill; and very soon after, the labourers appear loaded as at first, as busy and vigilant as before, with soldiers here and there among them, who act just in the same manner, one or other of them giving the signal to hasten the business. Thus the pleasure of seeing them come out to fight or to work, alternately, may be obtained as often as curiosity excites, or time permits; and it will certainly be found, that the one order never attempts to fight, nor the other to work, let the emergency be ever so great."

But as these ants are sometimes the instruments of destruction to others, so, on the contrary, they are also the objects of prey to the creature called the ant bear, who feeds upon them; and as his tongue, which resembles a lute-string, is of the thickness of a goosequill, which lies double within his mouth, and can be suddenly darted out to the length of two feet, he imbibes a great number of these little insects at once, especially when he finds. them about the roots of trees: but their hills, it is acknowledged, are of a consistence too strong to be penetrated by their enemy.

CHAP. XXIII.

Defects in the vegetation of Africa,-Strange correctives made use of by the cattle-Surprizing transitions of scenery-Inequalities of the ground-Various plants, trees, moss, &c.-Succulent plants in Zwart-kops BayEntertaining description of the salt-pans, or lakes in the interior of the country, and the causes of them-Uncommon defect of vegeta, tion in the Sneuwberg -Isolated and lonely· situation of a Dutch village, instanced in that of Graaf Reynet.

Ir is a great failure in the vegetation of the Cape Colonies to produce little, or nothing sq good as our grass for the cattle. On the contrary, the sharp biting juices of several plants, and the sour herbs that grow there, oblige then to eat many other unnatural substances, to correct their effects. Hence they are said to devour old rags, pieces of leather, dry wood, skins, bones, and sand. African horses also very frequently eat their own dung, and numbers, perish through imbibing these non-naturals.

It is not, however, to be understood, that this aridity, and poverty of vegetation is perpetual, but on the contrary, a transition is sometimes made by the traveller in one day, from un