These hills make their first appearance above ground by a little turret or two in the shape of sugar-loaves, which are run a foot high or more; soon after, at some little distance, while the former are increasing in height and size, they rise others, and so go on increasing the number, and widening them at the base, till their works below are covered with these turrets, which the insects always raise highest and largest towards the middle of the hill, and by filling up the intervals between each turret, collect them as it were into one dome. They are not very curious or exact about these turrets, except in making them very solid and strong; and when, by the junction of them, the dome is completed, for which purpose the turrets serve as scaffolds, they take away the middle ones entirely, except the tops, which joined together make the crown of the cupola, and apply the clay to the building of the works within, or to erecting fresh turrets for the purpose of raising the hillock still higher; so that no doubt some part of the clay is used several times, like the boards and posts of a mason’s scaffold. The royal chamber, which, on account of its being adapted for, and occupied by the king and queen, appears to be in the opinion of this little people, of the most consequence, is always situated as near the center of the interior building as possible, and generally about the height of the common surface of the ground, at a pace or two from the hillock; it is always nearly in the shape of half an egg or an obtuse oval within, and may be supposed to represent a long oven. In the infant state of the colony, it is not above an inch, or thereabouts, in length; but in time will be increased to six or eight inches or more in the clear, being always in proportion to the size of the queen, who, increasing in bulk as in age, at length requires a chamber of such dimensions. The floor is horizontal, sometimes an inch thick and upward of solid clay; the roof also, which is one solid and well-turned oval arch, is generally of about the same solidity, but in some places it is not a quarter of an inch thick; this is on the sides where it joins the floor, and where the doors or entrances are made. These entrances will not admit any animal larger than the soldiers or labourers; so that the king, and the queen, who is when full grown a thousand times the weight of a king, can never possibly go out. The royal chamber, if in a large hillock, is surrounded by an innumerable quantity of others, of different sizes, shapes, and dimensions; but all of them arched, sometimes of a circular, sometimes of an elliptical form. These chambers either open into each other, or have communicating passages, and being always empty, are evidently made for the soldiers and attendants; of whom, it will soon appear, great numbers are necessary, and of course always in waiting.