White Ants. 315 



make their way to the top, boring holes and cavities in dif- 

 ferent places as they proceed. Multitudes enter the roof, 

 and intersect it with pipes or galleries, formed of wet clay, 

 which serve for passages in all directions, 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 away the inside. A shelf or plank attacked in 

 this manner looks solid to the eye, when, if weighed, it will 

 not out-balance two sheets of pasteboard of the same dimen- 

 sions. It sometimes happens that they carry this operation 

 so far on stakes in the open air, as to render the bark too 

 flexible for their purpose ; when they remedy the defect by 

 plastering the whole stick with a sort of mortar which they 

 make with clay, so that, on being struck, the form vanishes, 

 and the artificial covering falls in fragments on the ground. 

 In the woods, when a large tree falls from age or accident, 

 they enter it on the side next the ground, and devour it at 

 leisure, till little more than the bark is left. But in this 

 case they take no precaution of strengthening the outward 

 defence, but leave it in such a state as to deceive an eye 

 unaccustomed to see trees thus gutted of their insides : and 

 " you may as well," says Mr. Smeathman, " step upon a 

 cloud." It is an extraordinary fact, that when these crea- 

 tures have formed pipes in the roof of a house, instinct 

 directs them to prevent its fall, which would ensue from 

 their having sapped the posts on which it rests ; but as they 

 gnaw away the wood, they fill up the interstices with clay, 

 tempered to a surprising degree of hardness, so that, when 

 the house is pulled down, these posts are transformed from 

 wood to stone. They make the walls of their galleries of 

 the same composition as their nests, varying the materials 

 according to their kind ; one species using the red clay, 

 another black clay, and the third a woody substance, 

 cemented with gums, as a security from the attacks of their 

 enemies, particularly the common ant, which, being defended 

 by a strong, horny shell, is more than a match for them, 

 and when it can get at them, rapaciously seizes them, and 



