190 THE UNIVERSE. 



times destroy large towns, wliicli have been deserted by 

 their inhabitants. 



Mrs. Lee told me that in the districts of Africa where 

 she lived, the Termites only take a very short time to devour 

 an entire dwelling. A staircase of very fair size is eaten 

 in a fortnight; tables, arm-chairs, and chairs in much less. 

 This celebrated traveller assured me that often at Sierra 

 Leone, on returning to one's house after a short absence, 

 only the ghost of the furniture is to be found. The exterior 

 still possesses all its freshness, but the substance is gone, 

 and every piece that is hollowed out falls to jDOAvder beneath 

 the hand of any one who touches it, or under the weight 

 of any one who sits down upon it. 



Instead of the conical domes ornamented with little 

 bell -towers, grouped together in villages in the middle of the 

 plains, some species of this group, such as the tree-termite, 

 prefer to suspend their nests amid the large branches of 

 the strongest trees. These aerial masses, mingling with 

 the foliage of the trees, are very sticking, for some of them 

 are larger than our hogsheads. The nests, which are 

 extremely porous, present inside an inextrical^le lal^yrinth 

 of tortuous canals ; they are formed of a matrix or compact 

 paste composed of fine j)articles of wood, gum, and juices 

 of plants. 



For some years past two species of this kind have been 

 established in France, and have caused very serious havoc 

 in some of our southern departments; they are the Termes 

 lucifagus and the heath-termite. Their introduction does 

 not seem to date further back than 1780. 



The devouring cohorts of the light-shunning termite have 

 invaded Eochefort, La Eochelle, and Aix, where their fangs 

 have completely undermined a number of houses Avhich 

 have fallen in. At one time these hateful depredators set 



