will find it out before the following morning, and its destruction follows very soon of course. In consequence of this disposition, the woods never remain long encumbered with the fallen trunks of trees or their branches; and thus it is, as I have before observed, the total destruction of deserted towns is so effectually completed, that in two or three years a thick wood fills the space; and, unless iron-wood posts have been made use of, not the least vestige of an house is to be discovered. The first object of admiration which strikes one upon opening their hills, is the behaviour of the soldiers. If you make a breach in a slight part of the building, and do it quickly with a strong hoe or pick-axe, in the space of a few seconds a soldier will run out, and walk about the breach, as if to see whether the enemy is gone, or to examine what is the cause of the attack. He will sometimes go again, as if to give the alarm; but most frequently in a short time is followed by two or three others, who run as fast as they can, straggling after one another, and are soon followed by a large body, who rush out as fast as the breach will permit them, and so they proceed, the number increasing, as long as any one continues battering their building. It is not easy to describe the rage and fury they shew. In their hurry they frequently miss their hold, and tumble down the sides of the hill, but recover themselves as quickly as possible; and, being blind, bite every thing they run against, and thus make a crackling noise, while some of them beat repeatedly with their forceps upon the building, and make a small vibrating noise, something shriller and quicker than the ticking of a watch: I could distinguish this noise at three or four feet distant, and it continued for a minute at a time, with short intervals. While the attack proceeds they are in the most violent bustle and agitation. If they get hold of any one, they will in an instant let out blood, enough to weigh against their whole body; and if it is the leg they wound, you will see the stain upon the stocking extend an inch in width. They make their hooked jaws meet at the first stroke, and never quit their hold, but suffer themselves to be pulled away leg by leg, and piece after piece, without the least attempt to escape. On the other hand, keep out of their way, and give them no interruption, and they will in less than half an hour retire into the nest, as if they supposed the wonderful monster that damaged their castle to be gone beyond their reach. Before they are all got in, you will see the labourers in motion, and hastening in various directions towards the breach; every one with a burden of mortar in his mouth, ready tempered. This they stick upon the breach as fast as they come up, and do it with so much dispatch and facility, that although there are thousands, and I may say millions of them, they never stop or embarrass one another, and you are most agreeably deceived when, after an apparent scene of hurry and confusion, a regular wall arises, gradually filling up the chasm. While they are thus employed, almost all the soldiers are retired quite out of sight, except here and there one, who saunters about among six hundred or a thousand of the labourers, but never touches the mortar, mortar, either to lift or carry it; one in particular places himself close to the wall they are building. This soldier will turn himself leisurely on all sides, and every now and then, at intervals of a minute or two, lift up his head, and with his forceps beat upon the building, and make the vibrating noise before mentioned, on which immediately a loud hiss, which appears to come from all the labourers, issues from withinside the dome, and all the subterraneous caverns and passages; that it does come from the labourers is very evident, for you will see them all hasten at every such signal, redouble their pace, and work as fast again. As the most interesting experiments become dull by repetition or continuance, so the uniformity with which this business is carried on, though so very wonderful, at last satiates the mind. A renewal of the attack, however, instantly changes the scene, and gratifies our curiosity still more. At every stroke we hear a loud hiss; and on the first 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 in 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 active and as sedulous, 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, or the other to work, let the emergency be ever so great. We meet vast obstacles in examining the interior parts of these tumuli. In the first place the work, for instance, the apartments which surround the royal chamber and the nurseries, and indeed the whole internal fabric, are moist, and consequently the clay is very brittle: they have also so close a connection that they can only be seen as it were by piece-meal; for, having a kind of geometrical dependance or abutment against each other, the breaking of one arch pulls down two or three. To these obstacles must be added the obstinacy of the soldiers, who fight to the very last, disputing every inch of ground so well, as often to drive away the -negroes who are without shoes, and make white people bleed plentifully through their stockings. Neither can we let a building stand so as to get a view of the interior parts without interruption, for while the soldiers are defending the outworks, the labourers keep barricadoing all the way against us, stopping up the different galleries and passages which lead to the various apartments, particularly the royal chamber, all the entrances to which they fill up so artfully, as not to let it be distinguishable while it remains moist; and externally it has no other appearance than that of a shapeless lump of clay. It is, how. ever, easily found, from its situation with respect to the other parts of the building, and by the crowds of labourers and soldiers which surround it, who shew their loyalty and fidelity by dying under its walls. The royal chamber, in a large nest, is capacious enough to hold many bundreds hundreds of the attendants, besides the royal pair, and you always find it as full of them as it can hold. These faithful subjects never abandon their charge, even in the last distress; for, whenever I took out the royal chamber, and, as I often did, preserved it for some time in a large glass bowl, all the attendants continued running in one direction round the king and queen, with the utmost solicitude, some of them stopping on every circuit at the head of the latter, as if to give her something. When they came to the extremity of the abdomen, they took the eggs from her, and carried them away, and piled them carefully to gether in some part of the chamber, or in the bowl under, or behind any pieces of broken clay which lay most convenient for the purpose. Some of these little unhappy creatures would ramble from the chamber, as if to explore the cause of such a horrid ruin and catastrophe to their immense building, as it must appear to them; and, after fruitless endeavours to get over the side of the bowl, return and mix with the crowd that continue running round their common parents to the last. Others, placing themselves along her side, get hold of the queen's vast matrix with their jaws, and pull with all their strength, so as visibly to lift up the part which they fix at; but, as I never saw any effect from these attempts, I never could determine whether this pulling was with an intention to remove her body, or to stimulate her to move herself, or for any other purpose; but, after many ineffectual tugs, they would desist, and join in the crowd running round, or assist some of those who are cutting off clay from the external parts of the chamber, or some of the fragments, and moistening it with the juices of their bodies, to begin to work a thin arched shell over the body of the queen, as if to exclude the air, or to hide her from the observation of some enemy. These, if not interrupted, before the next morning, completely cover her, leaving room enough within for great numbers to run about her. I do not mention the king in this case, because he is very small in proportion to the queen, not being bigger than thirty of the labourers, so that he generally conceals himself under one side of the abdomen, except when he goes up to the queen's head, which he does now and then, but not so frequently as the rest. If in your attack on the hill you stop short of the royal chamber, and cut down about half of the building, and leave open some thousands of galleries and chambers, they will all be shut up with thin sheets of clay before the next morning. If even the whole is pulled down, and the different buildings are thrown into a confused heap of ruins, provided the king and queen are not destroyed or taken away, every interstice between the ruins, at which either cold or wet can possibly enter, will be so covered as to exclude both, and, if the animals are left undisturbed, in about a year they will raise the building to near its pristine size and grandeur. USEFUL USEFUL PROJECTS. Lists of Patents for Inventions, &c. granted in the Year 1806. From the Repertory of Arts, Manufactures and Agriculture, Vol. 8, Second Series, 1808. JOHN Syeds, of Fountain Stairs, Rotherhithe-wall, in the county of Surrey, mathematical-instrumentmaker, for a steering amplitude, or azimuth-compass and scale, for finding and working courses of ships. Dated Oct. 7, 1805. Daniel Desormeaux, of Barking, in the county of Essex, surgeon and apothecary, and Samuel Hutchings, of Ilford, in the said parish of Barking, weaver; for certain improvements in the making and manufacturing of wax, spermaceti, and tallow candles. Dated Oct. 22,1805. Richárd Kentish, late captain in the Cambridgeshire militia, but now of Birmingham, in the county of Warwick, esquire; for an armourwaistcoat, which is a sure defence against the bayonet, sword, pike, or any pointed instrument, and in many instances, may prevent the wound from a musket-ball. Dated October 30, 1805. Joseph Huddart, of Highburyterrace, in the parish of Islington, in the county of Middlesex; for sundry new improvements in the manufacture of large cables, and cordage in general. Dated October 30, 1805. Samuel Miller, of Gresse-street, in the parish of St. Pancras, in the county of Middlesex, engineer; for certain improvements on steamengines. Dated October 30, 1805. John Hartop, of Brightside, in the parish of Sheffield, in the county of York, iron.master; for certain improvements in the method of preparing malleable iron for the purpose of making the same into bars, sheets, and slit rods, and manufacturing the same also into hoop iron; and for certain improvements in the method of preparing all other malleable metals. Dated November 7, 1805. John Trotter, of Soho-square, in the county of Middlesex, esquire ; for a rotary-engine, for applying the powers of fluids as first movers. Dated November 14, 1805. William Milton, vicar of Heckfield, in the county of Southampton, M. A.; for a mode of rendering carriages in general, but particularly stage-coaches, more safe than at present, and various other improvements upon such carriages. Dated November 16, 1805. John Curr, of Sheffield Park, in the parish of Sheffield, in the county of York, gentleman; for a method different from any that has hitherto been invented or known, of laying a rope, or, in other words, of twisting St. Botolph, Bishopsgate, in the and forming the strands together that compose the round rope. Dated November 16, 1805. Andrew Flint, of Gee-street Goswell-street, in the county of Middlesex, mill-wright; for a machine upon an improved construction, which may be used as a steamengine. Dated November 16, 1805. John Delafons, of Threadneedlestreet, in the city of London, watchmaker; for a marine alarum chronometer, for ascertaining the time of ship's log-line running out, the time of the watches on ship-board, and many other useful purposes. Dated November 19, 1805. George Wyke, of Winsley, in the county of Wilts, esquire; for a method of working pumps of various descriptions, by machinery, whereby much manual labour will be spared. Dated November 19, 1805. William Pocock, of the parish of St. Paul, Covent-garden, in the county of Middlesex, cabinet-maker and upholsterer; for improvements on tables for dining, and other use. Dated November 19, 1805. Archibald, earl of Dundonald; for certain improvements in machinery on mill-spinning, for the spinning of cotton, wool, silk, hemp, and flax, and substitutes for hemp and flax; communicated to him by Thomas Nelson, late of Lambeth, engineer, deceased. Dated Nov. 19, 1805. Richard Lambert, of Wick Rissington, in the county of Gloucester, gentleman; for an improved. thrashing-machine; and also an improved portable windlass, to be worked by one or more horses, particularly useful for drawing or hauling. Dated November 23, 1805. Richard Brown, of the parish of city of London, cabinet-maker; for certain improvements in the construction of several parts of tables, and of various other articles of household furniture, which stand upon, or are supported by, legs or feet. Dated November 26, 1805. James Ingram, of Castle-street, in the city of Bristol, grocer: for a method of manufacturing powdersugar from raw sugar alone, and from syrup of sugar alone, and from the mixtures of raw sugar and syrup of sugar. Dated Nov. 26, 1805. Samuel Amoss, of Red lion-place, in the parish of St. Sepulchre, in the city of London, china enameller; for certain improved methods of preparing various enamel colours, and of applying the same so prepared, to the ornamenting useful vessels of glass. Dated Nov. 26, 1805. Joseph Steel, of Stockport, in the county of Chester; for a species of cloths, fustians, calicos, cambricks, lawns, striped cottons, and other articles, manufactured with cotton, wool, and flax, mixed and spun together. Dated Dec. 17, 1805. Joseph Fletcher, of Horsley, in the county of Derby, needle-maker; for a machine for raising water. Dated January 23, 1806. George Barton Alcock, of the city of Kilkenny, in the part of the united kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, called Ireland; for certain improvements in lamps. Dated January 23, 1806. John Dobbs Davies, of New Compton-street, in the county of Middlesex, gentleman; for a saddlebar on an improved construction; which he denominates the motion saddle-b Dated January23, 1800 |