The materials appropriate for house-building necessarily vary according to the character of the climate, but it is desirable to consider briefly the advantages and disadvantages of those in most common use. Taking first the structure of the walls, it may be noted that in rainy climates near the coast, where very high temperatures are seldom registered, the materials can hardly be too flimsy and permeable; but as one recedes from the coast and meets with the extreme climates characteristic of the interior of continents, it will be found that the buildings become progressively more massive; so that while the Bengali or Malay inhabits a shanty formed of thatch and matting, the peasant of the Punjab shelters himself within mud halls some two feet thick. These differences in domestic architecture are the necessary outcome of differing environment, and to be comfortable, European houses must be built of very much the same materials as those of the natives around them. In dry climates, sun-dried bricks make an excellent wall, which resists heat even better than one of burnt brick, and provided it be protected from rain, it is wonderfully permanent and much stronger than would be expected; so that heavy, terraced roofs are easily carried by a two-feet thickness of this material, and they are even quite adequate to sustain a second story of lighter materials. The great drawback of the material is that it forms a favourite haunt for white ants, which tunnel it in all directions; but this can easily be obviated by introducing, just at the floor level, a single course of some damp and insect-proof material, such as burnt brick, laid on cement and tarred. Owing to its extreme cheapness a large house can be built for the same expenditure as a small one of burned brick, and as air space is of the greatest importance in hot climates, it is unfortunate that this material is not more utilised in Government buildings. _Flooring._--The most suitable material is stone flagging, marble, of course, being preferable. After these come hard tiles, brick on edge, and cement, in order of desirability. Besides these there are, of course, various special modern inventions, but they hardly come into practical consideration, outside large seaports. Wooden floors should be generally avoided, as owing to decay and the attacks of insects, they are apt to become dangerous, and may give way unexpectedly at any time. For upper floors, by far the most suitable material is the narrow brick arch supported on steel girders, which are now so generally obtainable and cheap, that they can be economically substituted for wooden beams in any locality tolerably accessible from a railway.