[840] Reaumur says decaying wood, vi. 182; but White asserts (and my own observations confirm his opinion) that wasps obtain their paper from sound timber; hornets, only from that which is decayed. White's Nat. Hist. by Markwick, ii. 228.
[841] Reaum. vi. Mem. 6.
[842] Annales du Mus. d'Hist. Nat. i. 289.
[843] vi. t. 19. f. i. 2.
[844] Rösel Vesp. t. 7. f. 8.
[845] Rösel II. viii. 30.
[846] Reaum. vi. 224.
[847] The most elevated of the pyramids of Egypt is not more than 600 feet high, which, setting the average height of man at only five feet, is not more than 120 times the height of the workmen employed. Whereas the nests of the Termites being at least twelve feet high, and the insects themselves not exceeding a quarter of an inch in stature, their edifice is upwards of 500 times the height of the builders; which, supposing them of human dimensions, would be more than half a mile. The shaft of the Roman aqueducts was lofty enough to permit a man on horseback to travel in them.
[Transcriber's Notes:]
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