or columns, between the future arched apartments, referable the
pinnacles upon the fronts o f fome old buildings, and demand
particular notice, as affording one proof that for the moll part
the infefls project their arches, and do not make them by excavation.
The area has alfo a flattifh floor, which lies over the royal
chamber, but fometimes a good height above it, having nurferies
and magazines between. It is likewife water-proof, and contrived
fo as to let the water off, i f it fhould get in and run over,
by fome fhort way, into thé Tiibterraneous paffages, which run
under the lowed; apartments in the hill, in various directions, and
are o f an adonifhing fize,, being wider than the bore o f a great
cannon. There is an account of one that was meafured, that
was perfectly cylindrical, and thirteen inches in diameter.
Thefe fubterraneous paffages, or galleries, are lined very thick
with the fame kind o f clay of which the hill is compofed, and
afcend the infide o f the outward fhell in a fpiral manner ; and
winding round the whole building up to the top, interfeCt each
other at different heights, opening either immediately into the
dome in various places, and into the interior building, the new
turrets, See. or communicating thereto by other galleries o f
different bores Or diameters, either circular or oval.
From every part of thefe large galleries are various fmall pipes,
or galleries, leading to diffèrent parts o f the building ; under
ground there are a great many which lead downward, by hoping
defeents three and four feet perpendicular among the gravel, from
whence the labouring termites cull the finer parts, which being
worked
worked up in their mouths to the confidence of mortar, becomes
that folid clay, or done, o f which their hills and all their buildings,
except their nurferies, are compofed.
Other galleries again afcend and lead out horizontally on. every
fide, and are carried under ground near to. the furface, a vad
didance: for if you dedroy all the neds within one hundred
yards of your houfe, the inhabitants o f thofe which are led un-
moleded farther off, will neverthelefs carry on their fubterraneous
galleries, and invade the goods and merchandizes contained in it
by fap and mine, and do great mifehief if you are not very
circumfpeS..
But to return to the cities from whence thefe extraordinary expeditions
and operations originate, it feems there is a degree o f
necedity for the galleries under the hills being thus large, being
the great thoroughfares for all the labourers and foldiers going
forth or returning upon any bufinefs whatever, whether fetching
clay, wood, water, or provifions; and they are certainly well
calculated for the purpofes to. which they are applied, by the
fpiral dope which is given them • for i f they were perpendicular,
the labourers would not be able to carry on their building with
fo much facility, as they afcend a perpendicular with difficulty,,
and the foldiers can fcarce do it at all-. It is on this account, that
fometimes a road like a ledge is made on the perpendicular fide
of any part o f the building within, their hill, which is fiat on the
upper furface, and half an inch wide, and afeends gradually like
a fiair-cafe, or like thofe roads which are cut on the fides o f hills,
and mountains, that would otherwife be inaccefiible: by which,
and;