348 KAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



accidentally obtained of the mischief which this insect 

 silently accomplishes. One day it was discovered 

 that the archives of the department were almost 

 totally destroyed, and that without the slightest ex- 

 ternal trace of any damage. The Termites had 

 reached the boxes in which these documents were 

 preserved, by mining the wainscoting, and they had 

 then leisurely set to work to devour these admini- 

 strative records, carefully respecting the upper sheets 

 and the margin of each leaf, so that a box which 

 was only filled with a mass of rubbish, seemed to 

 enclose a file of papers in perfect order. The hard- 

 est woods are attacked in the same manner. I saw 

 on one of the staircases an oak post, in which one of 

 the clerks had buried his hand up to the wrist, in 

 grasping at it for support as his foot accidentally 

 slipped. The interior of the post was entirely 

 formed of empty cells, the substance of which could 

 be scraped away like dust, while the layer that had 

 been left untouched by the Termites was not thicker 

 than a sheet of paper. 



Immediately on my arrival, I endeavoured to 

 procure a number of Termites, in order that I might 

 observe them at my leisure ; and thanks to the kind 

 attention of Doctor Garreau, one of the members of 

 the Society of Natural History, I constantly had a 

 supply of them on my table. It will be readily 

 understood that I took every precaution to avoid their 

 escaping, for had they got abroad, they would un- 

 doubtedly have destroyed the house, and in the course 

 of time the part of the city in which it was situated. 

 I kept these insects in a basin that was only half 



