This roof was composed of straw and dry sticks, plastered with clay, which rendered it equally impenetrable to sun or rain.

Pressed as we were for time, I could not help stopping to admire this feathered colony.

This leading us to speak of natural history, as it relates to animals who live in societies, we recalled in succession the ingenious labours of the beavers and the marmots; the not less marvellous constructions of the bees, the wasps, and the ants; and I mentioned particularly those immense ant-hills of America, of which the masonry is finished with such skill and solidity that they are sometimes used for ovens, to which they bear a resemblance.
We had now reached some trees quite unknown to us.

They were from forty to sixty feet in height, and from the bark, which was cracked in many places, issued small balls of a thick gum.

Fritz got one off with difficulty, it was so hardened by the sun.