212 STRANGE DWELLINGS. 



and Tournay-Charente have for some years suffered from the 

 ravages of the Termites, and now La Rochelle is invaded by 

 these terrible destroyers. In all probability they were imported 

 by some ship, taken ashore in the boxes into which they had 

 penetrated, and thence spread into the country around. Efforts 

 are being made towards the extirpation of these terrible insects, 

 but nothing seems as yet to have had any great effect. How 

 serious are the damages which they work may be seen from the 

 following account by M. de Quatrefages, in his ' Rambles of a 

 Naturalist,' vol. ii. p. 346 : — 



' The Prefecture and a few neighbouring houses are the prin^ 

 cipal scene of the destructive ravages of the Termites, but here 

 they have taken complete possession of the premises. In the 

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

 plank can be left on the beds, without being attacked within 

 twenty-four 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 

 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 them- 

 selves the very day after the workmen had left the place. In 

 the cellars I discovered similar galleries, which were within 

 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 observed between 

 the ground floor and the second floor, passing under the 

 plaster wherever 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. 



* 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 

 cuiious instances of this mode of construction. Thus, foi 



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