_ ¢annot be too much on our guard 
against them: they will sometimes 
_ beginand raise their works, especially 
in new houses, thtough the floor. If 
you destroy the work so begun, and 
_ make a fire upon the spot, the next 
night they will attempt to rise 
through another part; and, if they 
happen to emerge under a chest or 
trunk early in the night, will pierce 
the bottom, and destroy or spoil 
_ every thing in it before the morning. 
_ On these accounts we are careful to 
set all our chests and boxes upon 
__ stones or bricks, so as to leave. the 
bottoms of sueh furniture some 
inches above the ground, which not 
only prevents these insects finding 
them out so readily, but preserves 
the bottoms from a corrosive damp 
which would strike from the earth 
through, and rot every thing therein: 
a vast deal of vermin also would har- 
bour under, such as cuck-roacbes, 
centipedes, millepedes, scorpions,ants, 
and various other noisomie 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 appearance 
of a solid stick (which some vagrant 
colony of ants, or other insects, 
often shelter in till the winds disperse 
it); but, if they cannot trust the 
bark, they cover the whole stick with 
their mortar, and it then looks as if 
it had been dipped into thick mud 
that had been dried on. Under-ihis 
covering they work, leaving no more 
of the stick and bark than is’ barely 
sufficient to support it, and frequently 
not the smallest particle, so that, 
5 
-SNATURAL HISTORY. 
951 
upon a very small tap with your 
walking-stick, the whole stake, 
though apparently as thick as your 
arm, and five or six feet long, loses 
its form, and disappearing like a 
shadow, fails in small fragments at 
your feet. They generally enter the 
body of a large tree, which has 
fallen through ate, 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 wo.d which they have 
removed from within, being somehow 
sensible that there is -no neces:it 
for it. These excavated trees have 
deceived me two or three times in 
running; fur, attempting to step two. 
or three feet high, F might as well 
have attempted to step upona cloud, 
and have come down with, such 
unexpected violence, that, besides 
shaking my teeth and bones almost 
to dislocation, I have been precipi 
tated, head foremost, among the 
neighbouring trees and bushes. 
Sometimes, though seldom, the 
animals are known to attack living 
trees; but not, I apprehend, before 
symptoms of mortification — have 
appeared at the roots, since it is 
evident, as is before observed, that 
these insects are intended, in the 
order of nature, to hasten the disso- 
lution of such trees and vegetables 
as have arrived at their greatest 
maturity and perfection, and which 
would, by a tedious decay, sefve 
only to encumber the face of the 
earth. This purpose they answer so 
effectually, that nothing perishable 
escapes them, aud it is almost im= 
possible to~leave any thing pene- 
trable upon the ground a long time 
in safety; for the odds are, that 
put it where you will abroad, they 
aP4 will 
