THE KOMANCE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



white-ants; "calamitas Indiarum" Wood, timber 

 of all kinds, with one or two exceptions, is the 

 object of their attacks ; and so unrelenting is their 

 perseverance, so incredible are their numbers, that 

 all the wood-work of a house disappears before 

 them in the course of a night or two; though 

 individually they are about the size of the com- 

 mon red ant of our woods. They have an aver- 

 sion to the light, and invariably work under 

 cover : hence, in attacking a tree, a post, a rafter, 

 or a table, they eat out the interior, leaving the 

 thinnest possible layer of the outer wood remain- 

 ing. It frequently happens that, after their depre- 

 dations have been committed, no indication of the 

 work appears to the eye, but the least touch 

 suffices to bring down the apparently solid struc- 

 ture, like a house of cards, amidst a cloud of 

 blinding dust. If, however, as in the case of the 

 supporting posts of a house, any incumbent 

 weight has to be sustained, they have the instinct 

 to guard against the crash which would involve 

 themselves in ruin, by gradually filling up the 

 hollowed posts with a sort of mortar, leaving 

 only a slender way for their own travel ; thus the 

 posts are changed from wood to stone, and re- 

 tain their solidity. 



Forbes in his "Oriental Memoirs"* has recorded 

 a curious, but by no means unusual example of 

 the ravages of the termites. Having had occasion 

 to shut up an apartment, he observed, on return- 

 ing after a few weeks, a number of the well- 

 known covered ways leading across the room to 

 certain engravings hung in frames. The glasses 

 appeared to be uncommonly dull, and the frames 

 covered with dust. "On attempting/' says he, 

 "to wipe it off, I was astonished to find the 



* Vol. i. p. 362. 



106 



