44 ON ENTOMOLOGY. 



wherry, being sharp and higher, as sailors say, fore and aft, convex be- 

 low, and concave above, and always floating on its keel. The most 

 violent agitation of the water, he adds, cannot sink it ; and what is more 

 extraordinary, and a property still a desideratum in our life-boats, 

 though hollow, it never becomes filled with water, even though exposed. 

 To put this to the test, says Kirby, I placed half a dozen of these boats 

 upon the surface of the tumbler, half full of water ; I then poured upon 

 them a stream of that element from the mouth of a quart bottle, held a 

 foot above them. Yet, after this treatment, which was so rough as ac- 

 tually to project one out of the glass, I found them floating as before 

 upon their bottoms, and not a drop of water within their cavity. 



APTERA. The WHITE ANTS, or Termites. Were our houses built in the 

 same proportion as their nests, they would be twelve or fifteen inches 

 higher than the Monument, and four or five times higher than the pyramids 

 Egypt, with corresponding dimensions in the basements of the edifices. 

 These statements are, perhaps, necessary to impress the extraordinary 

 labours of Ants upon the mind for we are all more or less sensible to 

 the force of comparisons. The analogies between the works of insects 

 and of men are not perfect ; for insects are all provided with instruments 

 peculiarly adapted to the end which they instinctively seek, while man 

 has to form a plan by progressive thought and upon the experience of 

 others, and to complete it with tools which he also invents. The 

 termites do not stand above a quarter of an inch high, while their nests 

 are frequently twelve feet. Nor is it only in constructing dwellings for 

 themselves that the termites of Africa and other hot climates, employ 

 their masonic skill. Though like our Ants and Wasps, they are almost 

 omnivorous, yet wood, particularly when felled and dry, seems their 

 favorite article of food ; but they have an utter aversion to feeding in the 

 light, and always eat their way with all expedition into the interior. 

 It thence would seem necessary for them either to leave the bark of a 

 tree, or the outer portion of the beam or door of a house undevoured, 

 or to eat in open day. They do neither, but are at the trouble of con- 

 structing galleries of clay in which they can conceal themselves and 

 feed in obscurity. In all their foraging excursions, indeed they build 

 covert ways, by which they can go ont and return to their encampment. 

 Others of the species (for there are several^) instead of building galleries 

 exercise the art of miners, and make their approaches under, ground, 

 penetrating beneath the foundation of houses or areas, and rising again 

 either through the floors, or by entering the bottom of the posts that 

 support the building, when they follow the course of the fibres, and make 

 their way to the top, boring holes and cavities in different places as 

 they proceed. Multitudes enter the roof and intersect it with pipes 

 and galleries formed of wet clay, which serve for passages in all direc- 

 tions, and enable them more readily to fix their habitations in it. They 

 prefer the softer woods, such as pine and fir, which they hollow out 

 with such nicety that they leave the surface whole after having eaten 



