THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 189 



accessory hillocks. When one traverses a part where the 

 colonies of Termites abound, one might take them at a 

 distance for an Indian village. The walls of these dwellings 

 are so solid, that the wild cattle climb npon them without 

 crushing them when they place themselves there as 

 sentinels; and the interior contains chambers so large, 

 that a dozen men can find shelter in some of them; the 

 hunters place themselves in them to lie in wait for wild 

 animals. 



Besides these extraordinary chambers, we find also in 

 this kind of social-republic city long galleries, of the calil^re 

 of our large cannon, and which extend as much as three 

 or four feet into the ground. 



The monuments of which we are proud are trifling 

 matters compared to those built by these fragile insects. 

 The nests of the Termites are often 500 times as long as 

 their bodies, and it has therefore been calculated, that if 

 we gave our houses a proportional height, they Avould be 

 four or five times as high as the pyramids of Egypt. 



Other Termites, instead of constructing these astonish- 

 ing abodes, occupy themselves mischievously in attacking 

 ours, and iuA'ade them sometimes from the roof to the 

 foundation; everything then goes to ruin, house and furni- 

 ture alike. These insidious depredators make their way 

 silently underground, and tunnel long galleries, by means 

 of which they all at once invade our dwellings. Then they 

 ]3enetrate into all the timber-work, and totally destroy the 

 interior of it, only leaving a surface as thin as a Avafer. 

 Nothing reveals their hidden havoc to the eye ; we see our 

 house, Ave believe in its real existence, Avhile Ave possess 

 only a phantom of it — a house of cards, Avhich falls at the 

 first shake. Smeathman, Avho has left us such an inter- 

 esting history of these Neuroptera, relates that they some- 



