200 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 



tliey are eaten off, the wliole structure comes to tlie 

 ground. A large L attached to the conProleur' s 

 house, which we have been using for a dining- 

 room, fell down from this cause the other day. Af- 

 terward, when I came to Macassar, a fine war-steamer 

 of eight hundred or one thousand tons was pointed 

 out to me, which the white ants had succeeded in 

 establishing themselves in, and several gentlemen, 

 who ought to have known, said that she was so 

 badly eaten by them that she was almost unsea- 

 worthy. 



On another occasion the commandant and I went 

 to the west end of the bay to hunt deer. We started 

 early, and at eight o'clock were already at the mouth 

 of a small stream, which we ascended for a short dis- 

 tance, and a guide then led us through a strip of 

 woods that lined the banks. Our party in all con- 

 sisted of more than twenty, half of whom were sol- 

 diers, armed Avith rifles; the others came to start 

 up the game. When we passed out into a level, 

 open prairie, all that had guns were posted about 

 twenty yards apart, in a line parallel to the woods. 

 The others made a long circuit round, and finally en- 

 tered the forest before us. Then forming into a line, 

 they began to drive toward us, shouting with all 

 their might, and making a din horrid enough to 

 frighten other animals less timid than deer. Packs 

 of dogs, that the natives had brought, were mean- 

 time yelping and howling. Soon there was a crack- 

 ing in the bushes near me, and at the next in- 

 stant came a female and her fawn, with high, flying 

 leaps through the tall grass. I carried a heavy gov- 



