INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 24'7 



it, and had devoured most of the wood-work, leaving 

 httle besides the metal and glasses*. A shorter period 

 sufficed for their demolition of some of Mr. Forbes's 

 furniture. On surveying a room which had been locked 

 up during an absence of a few weeks, he observed a 

 number of advanced works in various directions towards 

 some prints and drawings in English frames ; the glasses 

 appeared to be uncommonly dull, and the frames covered 

 with dust. " On attempting," says he, " to wipe it off, 

 I was astonished to find the glasses fixed to the wall, 

 not suspended in frames as I left them, but completely 

 surrounded by an incrustation cemented by the white 

 ants, who had actually eaten up the deal frames and 

 back-boards, and the greater part of the paper, and left 

 the glasses upheld by the incrustation, or covered way, 

 which they had formed during their depredation^." It 

 is even asserted that the superb residence of the Go- 

 vernor-General at Calcutta, which cost the East India 

 Company such immense sums, is now rapidly going to 

 decay in consequence of the attacks of these insects ^. — 

 But not content with the dominions they have acquired, 

 and the cities they have laid low on Terra Firma, en- 

 couraged by success the white ants have also aimed at 

 the sovereignty of the ocean, and once had the hardi- 

 hood to attack even a British ship of the line ; and, in 

 spite of the efforts of her commander and his valiant 

 crew, having boarded they got possession of her, and 

 handled her so roughly, that when brought into port, 



* This account of the Termites is cliicfly taken from Snieathmau 

 in Philos. Trans. 1781, and Percival's Ceylon, 307 — • 



^ Oriental Memoirs, i. 30:3. <• Morning Herald, Dec. 31st, 1814. 



