108 MULTUM E PARVO. 



cask. And Sir E. Tennent appears to have fared no 

 better ; for he complains that, in Ceylon, he had a case of 

 wine filled, in the course of two days, with almost solid 

 clay, and only discovered the presence of the white ants 

 by the bursting of the corks. 



They find their way into bureaux and cabinets, and 

 greedily devour all papers and parchments therein, and 

 " a shelf of books will be tunnelled into a gallery, if it 

 happen to be in their line of march." Hence, as Hum- 

 boldt observes, throughout the equinoctial regions of 

 America, — and the same is true in similar climates of the 

 Old World, indeed, in all, where very special precautions 

 are not taken against it, — it is infinitely rare to find any 

 records much more than half a century old 



But though the exercise of their instinct brings these 

 little insects into collision with man, and so far they act 

 as his enemies, abundantly making up in pertinacity and 

 consociation what they lack in individual force, — we shall 

 greatly misunderstand their mission if we look at it only 

 in this aspect. As an example of mean agents perform- 

 ing, great deeds, we must see them far from the haunts of 

 man, engaged as the scavengers of the forest-wilds of the 

 tropics ; the removers of fallen trees, of huge giants of the 

 woods, commissioned to get rid of those enormous bulks 

 of timber, which, having stood in stately grandeur and 

 rich life for a thousand years, have at length yielded to 

 death. Not long does the vast mass lie cumbering the 

 soil beneath : the termites attack it, enter its substance 

 from the ground, and in the course of a few weeks sue- 



