442 
TERMES. 
your arm, and five or six feet long, loses its form, 
and disappearing like a shadow falls in small frag- 
ments at your feet. They generally enter tlie 
body of a large tree which has fallen through age or 
been thrown down by violence, on the side next the 
ground, and eat away at their leisure within the 
bark, without giving themselves the trouble either 
to cover it on the outside, or to replace the wood 
which they have removed from witljiii, being 
somehow sensible that there is no necessity for it. 
These excavated trees have deceived me two or 
three times in running: for, attempting to step 
two or tliree feet high, I might as well have at- 
tempted to step upon a cloud, and have come 
down with such unexpected violence, that, besides 
shaking my teeth and bones almost to dislocation, 
I have been precipitated, head foremost, among 
the neighbouring trees and bushes. Sometime.s, 
though seldom, the animals are known to attack liv- 
ing trees; but not, I apprehend, before symptoms 
of mortilication have appeared at the roots, since 
it is evident, as, is before observed, that these in- 
sects are intended in the order of nature to hasten 
the dissolution of such trees and vegetables as have 
arrived at their greatest maturity and perfection, 
and which would, by a tedious decay, serve only 
to encumber the face of the earth. This purpose 
they answer so elfectually, that nothing perishable 
escapes them, and it is almost impossible to leave 
any thing penetrable upon the ground a long time 
in safety; for the odds are, that, put it where you 
will abroad, they will find it out before the follow^ 
