TERMES. 
441 
under a chest or trunk early in tlie niglit, will 
pierce the bottom, and destroy or spoil every 
thing in it before the morning. On these ac- 
counts Vv^e are careful to set all our ehests and 
boxes upon stones or bricks, so as to leave the 
bottoms of such furniture some inches above the 
ground 3 which not only prevents these insects 
finding them out so readily, but preserves the 
bottoms from a corrosive damp w4iich would strike 
from the earth through, and rot every thing 
therein : a vast deal of vermin also would harbour 
under, such as Cock-roaches, Centipedes, Alillc- 
pedes. Scorpions, Ants, and various other noisome 
insects. 
“ When the Termites attack trees and branches 
in the open air, they sometimes vary their manner 
of doing it. If a stake in a hedge has not taken 
root and vegetated, it becomes their business to 
destroy it. If it has a good sound bark round it, 
they will enter at the bottom, and eat all but the 
bark, which will remain, and exhibit the appear- 
ance of a solid stick (which some vagrant colony 
of Ants or other insects often shelter in till the 
winds disijerse it)j but if they cannot trust the 
bark, they cover the whole stick with their mortar, 
and it then looks as if it had been di])ped into 
thick mud that had been dried on. Under this 
covering they work, leaving no more of the stick 
and bark than is barely sufficient to sup])ort it, 
and frequently not the smallest particle, so that 
u])on a very small tap with your walking-stick, 
the whole stake, though apparently as thick as 
