346 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



other towns to which I have referred. Here the 

 Termites have only taken possession of the Prefec- 

 ture and the Arsenal.* And in consequence of these 

 insects not having made any marked progress for 

 some years past, the Hochellais appear to believe that 

 they will never exceed their present limits. This is 

 most certainly an error, and whenever the season 

 should be a little more favourable than usual to the 

 development of these insects, the whole town may 

 be infested in the course of a few months, and the 

 Kochellais will then too late deplore the imprudent 

 security which led them to neglect to seek for the 

 necessary means of destroying these enemies, which 

 at present are quartered at the two extremities of the 

 town. 



The Prefecture and a few neighbouring houses 

 are the principal scene of the destructive ravages of 

 the Termites, but here they have taken complete 

 possession of the premises. In the garden not a 



* This installation of Termites at two perfectly isolated points, 

 which are situated almost at the two extremities of the town, and 

 the absence of these insects from all the central part of La Rochelle, 

 demonstrate most clearly that they are not natives of this portion of 

 the department. M. Blan chard indeed admits their importation into 

 La Rochelle. From information which I have obtained through 

 M. Beltremieux, this importation took place about 1780, when the 

 brothers Poupet, rich shipowners of that day, were building the hotel 

 or mansion which was afterwards converted into the Prefecture. It 

 would appear that goods which had come from Saint- Domingo were 

 the means of introducing the Termites not only into La Rochelle 

 but also into Rochefort, and several other points where the brothers 

 Poupet had warehouses. This traditionary account agrees tolerably 

 well with the date which M. Bobe-Moreau gives for the discovery of 

 the Termites at Rochefort, and would also explain their progressive 



