TERMITES. 201 



each time that one set- never fight, and the other never work, 

 however great the need may be.' ^ 



Similar facts have been observed by Fritz Miiller of 

 the South American species. 



The Termites, being like the Ecitons blind, like them 

 make all their expeditions under the protection of covered 

 ways. These are underground tunnels in all cases where 

 circumstances permit, but on arriving at a rock or other 

 impenetrable obstruction, they build a tubular passage 

 upon the surface. According to Biichner, — 



They can even carry their viaducts through the air, and that 

 in such hold arches that it is difficult to understand how they 

 were projected. In order to reach a sack of meal which was 

 well protected below, they broke through the roof of the room 

 in which it was, and built a straight tube from the breach they 

 had made down to the sack. As soon as they tried to carry off 

 their booty to a safe place, they became convinced that it was 

 impossible to pull it up the straight road. In order to meet 

 this difficulty, they adopted the principle of the smooth incline, 

 the use of which we have already seen in the interior of their 

 nests, and built close to the first tube a second, which wound 

 spirally within, like the famous clock tower of Venice. It was 

 now an easy task to carry their booty up this road and so away. 

 . . . Either from the desire to remain undiscovered, or from their 

 liking for darkness, they have the remarkable habit of destroy- 

 ing and gnawing evei'ything from within outwards, and of 

 leaving the outside shell standing, so that from the outside ap- 

 pearance the dangerous state of the inside is not perceptible. 

 If, for instance, they have destroyed a table or other piece of 

 household furniture, in which they always manage from the 

 ground upwards to hit exactly the places on which the feet of 

 the article rest, the table looks perfectly uninjured outside, and 

 people are quite astonished when it breaks down under the 

 slightest pressure. The whole inside is eaten away, and only 

 the thinnest shell is left standing. If fruits are lying on the 

 table, they also are eaten out from the exact spot on which they 

 rest on the surface of the table. 



In similar fashion things consisting wholly of wood, such as 

 wooden ships, trees, &c., are destroyed by them so that they 

 finally break in without any one having noticed the mischief. 

 Yet it is said that they go so prudently to work in their de- 



1 Ihid., p. 119. 



