350 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



Toumay-Charente have for some years suffered from the ravages 

 of the Termites, and now La Eochelle 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 tenible 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. u. 

 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 themselves 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 extend- 

 ing 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 Eochelle 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 curious 

 instances of this mode of construction. Thus, for 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. 



