WHITE ANTS. 71 



speedily as possible, most of them run back as fast, and 

 very few will venture through that part oi^ie gallery which 

 is left uncovered. In c. few minutes they may be seen en- 

 gaged in rebuilding the arch, and even if three or foui' yards 

 of their gallery have been destroyed, it will be restored by 

 the next morning ; and on again opening it, the Termites 

 will be found as numerous as ever, passing both ways. If 

 the gallery be several times destroyed, they will at length 

 seem to give up the point, and build another in a different 

 direction ; but if the old one led to some favorite plunder, 

 in a few days they will rebuild it again, and unless the nest 

 be destroyed they never totally abandon their gallery. 



The TermUes generally make their approaches to the nest 

 under ground, descending below the foundations of houses 

 and stores at several feet from the surface, and rising again 

 either in the floors, or entering at the bottoms of the posts of 

 which the sides of the buildings are composed, they bore 

 quite through them, following the course of the fibres to the 

 top, or making lateral perforations and cavities here and 

 there as they proceed. While some are employed in gutting 

 the posts, others ascend from them, entering a rafter or some 

 other part of the roof; if they once find the thatch, which 

 seems to be a favourite food, they bring up wet clay, and 

 build their pipes or galleries through the roof in various 

 directions, as long as it will support them ; sometimes eat- 

 ing the palm-tree leaves and branches of which it is com- 

 posed, and perhaps (for variety seems very pleasing to 

 them) the rattan or other running plant which is used as a 

 cord to tie the various parts of the roof together, and that 

 to the posts which support it : thus, with the assistance of 

 the rats, which, during the rainy season are apt to shelter 

 themselves there and to burrow through it, they very soon 

 rain the house by weakening the fastenings and exposing 

 it to the wet. In the mean time the posts will be perfor- 



