THE TERMITE, OR WHITE ANT. 213 



instance, he saw isolated galleries or arcades, which were 

 thrown horizontally forward 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. 



'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. Audoin's visit a curious proof 

 was accidentally obtained of the niischief 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 external trace of any damage. 

 The Termites had reached the boxes in which these docu- 

 ments were preserved by mining the wainscoting ; and they 

 had then leisurely set to work to devour these administrative 

 records, carefully respecting the upper sheets and the mar- 

 gin of each leaf, so that a box which was only a mass 

 of rubbish, seemed to contain a pile of papers in perfect 

 order.* 



In the British Museum are several examples of the ravages 

 worked by Termites, one of which is an ordinary beam that 

 has been so completely hollowed and eaten away, that nothing 

 remains but a mere shell no thicker than the wood of a band- 

 box. 



Besides the species which were investigated by M. de 

 Quatrefages, there are others in the south of France, and 

 in Sardinia and Spain. One species, Termes flavicollis, chiefly 

 attacks and destroys the olives, while in the Landes and 

 Gironde the oaks and firs are killed by another species, Termes 

 lucifugus. 



As the limits of the work preclude a very lengthened 

 account of any one creature, our history of the Termites must 

 here be concluded, although much interesting matter remains 

 unwritten. 



In the accompanying illustration are figured the nests of two 

 insects, both of them natives of tropical America, and both 

 belonging to the hymenopterous order. The upper insect is 



