T1IE COASTS OF SAINTONGE. 347 



stake can be put into the ground, and not a plank 

 can be left on the beds, without being attacked 

 within twenty-four or forty-eight hours. The fences 

 put round the young trees are gnawed from the 

 bottom, while the trees themselves are gutted to the 

 very branches. Within the building itself, the 

 apartments and offices are all alike invaded. I saw 

 upon the roof of a bedroom that had been recently 

 repaired, galleries made by the Termites which 

 looked like stalactites, and which had begun to show 

 themselves the very day after the workmen had left 

 the place. In the cellars, I discovered similar gal- 

 leries, which were either half way between the 

 ceiling and the floor*, or running along the walls, 

 and extending no doubt up to the very garrets, for 

 on the principal staircase other galleries were ob- 

 served between the ground floor and the second 

 floor, passing under the plaster whenever it was 

 sufficiently thick for the purpose, and only coming 

 to view at different points where the stones were on 

 the surface ; for, like other species, the Termites of 

 La Rochelle always work under cover wherever it is 

 possible for them to do so. It is generally only by 

 incessant vigilance that we can trace the course of 

 their devastations, and prevent their ravages. At 

 the time of M. Audouin's visit, a curious proof was 



* MM. Milne-Edwards and Blanchard have seen galleries which 

 descended without any extraneous support from the ceiling to the 

 floor of a cellar. M. Bobe-Moreau cites several curious instances 

 of this mode of construction ; thus for instance, he saw isolated 

 galleries, or arcades, which were thrown horizontally forwards like a 

 tubular bridge, in order to reach a piece of paper that was wrapped 

 round a bottle, the contents of a pot of honey, &c. 



