EATING INSECTS, 167 



roads through it, and as fast as they take away the 

 wood, replace the vacancy with that material, which 

 being worked together by them closer and more com- 

 pactly than human strength or art could ram it, 

 when the house is pulled to pieces, in order to ex- 

 amine if any of the posts are fit to be used again, 

 those of the softer kinds are often found reduced 

 almost to a shell, and all, or a greater part, trans- 

 formed from wood to clay, as solid and as hard as 

 many kinds of free-stone used for building in Eng- 

 land. It is much the same when the Termites hel- 

 licosi get into a chest, or trunk, containing clothes or 

 other things ; if the weight above is great, or they 

 are afraid of ants or other vermin, and have time, 

 they carry their pipes through, and replace a great 

 part with clay, running their galleries in various direc- 

 tions.'* 



' Not content,' as the authors of the Introduction 

 to Entomology express it, ' with the dominions they 

 have acquired, and the cities they have laid low on 

 Terra Firma, encouraged by success, the white ants 

 have also aimed at the sovereignty of the ocean, and 

 once had the hardihood to attack even a British ship 

 of the line (the Albion) ; 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, being 

 no longer fit for service, she was obliged to be broken 

 up. She was indeed in such a condition from the 

 attack of insects, supposed to be white ants, that had 

 not the ship been firmly lashed together, it was 

 thought she would have foundered in her voyage 

 home.'t 



As the species, however, does not in the preceding 

 case appear to have been correctly ascertained, it is 



* Phil. Trans, for 1781, p. 179. 

 t Intr. i,246. 



