and I presently shut my window. Thefe infects were as large as partridges; I took out their ftings, found them an inch and a half long, and as fharp as needles. I carefully preserved them all, and having fince fhewn them with fome other curiofities in feveral parts of Europe, upon my return to England, I gave three of them to Gresham College, and kept the fourth for myself.

CHA P. IV.

The country defcribed. A propofal for correcting modern maps. The king's palace, and fome account of the metropolis. The author's way of travelling. The chief temple defcribed.

Now intend to give the reader a short description of this country, as far as I travelled in it, which was not above two thousand miles round Lorbrulgrud, the metropolis. For the queen, whom I always attended, never went farther when the accompanied the king in his progresses, and there staid till his majefty returned from viewing his frontiers. The whole extent of this prince's dominions reacheth about fix thoufand miles in length, and from three to five in breadth. From whence I cannot but conclude, that our geographers of Europe are in a great error, by fuppofing nothing but fea between Japan and California; for it was ever my opinion, that there must be a balance of earth to counterpoise the great

con

continent of Tartary; and therefore they ought to correct their maps and charts by joining this vast tract of land to the north-west parts of America, wherein I fhall be ready to lend them my affiftance.

The kingdom is a peninfula, terminated to the north-east by a ridge of mountains thirty miles high, which are altogether impaffable by reafon of the volcanoes upon the tops:

neither do the most learned know what fort of mortals inhabit beyond thofe mountains, or whether they be inhabited at all. On the three other fides it is bounded by the ocean. There is not one fea-port in the whole kingdom, and those parts of the coafts into which the rivers iffue are fo full of pointed rocks, and the fea generally fo rough, that there is no venturing with the smallest of their boats; fo that these people are wholly excluded from any commerce with the reft of the world. But the large rivers are full of veffels, and abound with excellent fish, for they feldom get any from the fea, because the fea-fish are of the fame fize with thofe in Europe, and confequently not worth catching; whereby it is manifeft, that nature in the production of plants and animals of fo extraordinary a bulk is wholly confined to this continent, of which I leave the reafons to be determined by philofophers. However, now and then they take a whale that happens to be dashed against the rocks, which the common people feed on heartily. These whales I have known fo large

that

that a man could hardly carry one upon his houlders; and fometimes for curiofity they are brought in hampers to Lorbrulgrud: I faw one of them in a difh at the king's table, which paffed for a rarity, but I did not obferve he was fond of it; for I think indeed the bignefs difgufted him, although I have feen one fomewhat larger in Greenland.

The country is well inhabited, for it contains fifty-one cities, near an hundred walled towns, and a great number of villages. To fatisfy my curious reader, it may be fufficient to defcribe Larbrulgrud. This city ftands upon almost two equal parts on each fide the river that paffes through. It contains above. eighty thousand houfes, and about fix hundred thousand inhabitants. It is in length three glomglungs (which make about fifty-four Englif miles) and two and a half in breadth, as I measured it myself in the royal map made by the king's order, which was laid on the ground on purpofe for me, and extended an hundred feet; I paced the diameter and circumference feveral times bare foot, and, computing by the scale, measured it pretty exactly.

The king's palace is no regular edifice, but an heap of building about seven miles round: the chief rooms are generally two hundred and forty feet high, and broad and long in proportion. A coach was allowed to Glumdalclitch and me, wherein her governess frequently took her out to fee the town, or go among the

fhops;

shops; and I was always of the party, carried in my box; although the girl at my own defire would often take me out, and hold me in her hand, that I might more conveniently view the houses and the people, as we paffed along the streets. I reckoned our coach to be about a fquare of Westminster-hall, but not altogether fo high however, I cannot be very exact. One day the governess ordered our coachman to stop at several shops, where the beggars, watching their opportunity, crouded to the fides of the coach, and gave me the most horrible spectacles that ever an european eye beheld. There was a woman with a cancer in her breaft, fwelled to a monftrous fize, full of holes, in two or three of which I could have eafily crept, and covered my whole body. There was a fellow with a wen in his neck larger than five wool-packs, and another with a couple of wooden legs, each about twenty feet high. But the most hateful fight of all was the lice crawling on their cloaths. I could fee diftinctly the limbs of these vermin with my naked eye, much better than those of an european loufe through a microscope, and their fnouts with which they rooted like fwine. They were the firft I had ever beheld, and I should have been curious enough to diffect one of them, if I had had proper inftruments (which I unluckily left behind me in the ship) although indeed the fight was fo nauseous, that it perfectly turned my stomach.

Befide the large box in which I was usually carried, the queen ordered a smaller one to be made for me of about twelve feet square and ten high for the convenience of travelling, because the other was fomewhat too large for Glumdalclitch's lap, and cumbersome in the coach; it was made by the fame artist, whom I directed in the whole contrivance. This travelling closet was an exact square with a window in the middle of three of the fquares, and each window was latticed with iron wire on the outside to prevent accidents in long journies. On the fourth fide, which had no window, two strong staples were fixed, through which the person that carried me, when I had a mind to be on horfeback, put a leathern belt, and buckled it about his waift. This was always the office of fome grave trusty servant in whom I could confide, whether I attended the king and queen in their progreffes, or were disposed to see the gardens, or pay a vifit to fome great lady or minifter of ftate in the court, when Glumdalclitch happened to be out of order: for I foon began to be known and esteemed among the greatest officers, I fuppofe more upon account of their majesty's favour than any merit of my own. In journies, when I was weary of the coach, a fervant on horfeback would buckle on my box, and place it upon a cushion before him; and there I had a full profpect of the country on three fides from my three windows. I had in this closet a field-bed and a hammock hung