THE COASTS OF SAINTONGE. 341 



be attacked, they bring with them mortar to replace, 

 piece by piece, the woody structures which they 

 have destroyed ; and Smeathman has seen wooden 

 posts thus changed into hard clay columns. If the con- 

 trary be the case, they are less cautious, and their 

 work of destruction progresses with such amazing 

 rapidity that one season suffices for the complete 

 destruction of a house built in the European 

 fashion, while a negro village completely disappears 

 within the same period. They have been seen 

 to penetrate in a single night through the foot 

 of a table, and traversing the leg from below up- 

 wards, to attack a box which was standing upon 

 it, and so completely to destroy the contents that 

 the next day not an inch of the clothing which it 

 contained was found to have escaped their attacks ; 

 and even papers, drawings, and pencils, including 

 the lead, had all disappeared in the same time. 



Of the different species of Termites described by 

 naturalists, two only appear to occur in Europe.* 

 Both are exclusively miners, and their nests, which 

 are difficult of detection, have not been studied like 

 those of their congeners which raise their habitations 



* We are certainly far from knowing all the species of Termites 

 which inhabit the two continents, and the distinctions between those 

 that have already been described are by no means perfectly defined. 

 It would appear, however, from the memoirs of various authors, 

 that there exist at least twenty- four distinct species of these insects, 

 nine of which belong to Africa, nine to America, two to Asia, and 

 two to Europe. We do not yet know the habitats of the remaining 

 two. The two European species occur in France, and we shall 

 presently see that there are reasons which lead to the supposition 

 that we possess a third. 



z 3 



