Microscopical Essays. 295 



at a Iofs to fay whether they are moft to be admired on that 

 account, or for their enormous magnitude and folidity. 



The reafon that the larger termites have been moft remarked, 

 is obvious ; they not only build larger and more curious nefts ? 

 but are alfo more numerous, and do infinitely more mifchief to 

 mankind. When thefe infe&s attack fuch things as we would not 

 wifli to have injured, we mud confide r them as moft pernicious ; 

 but when they are employed in deftroying decayed trees, and fub- 

 flances which only incumber the furface of the earth, they may 

 juftly be fuppofed very ufeful ; and for the reafon that they are 

 in one fenfe moft pernicious, they are in the other moft ufeful. 

 In this refpe£fc they referable very much the common flies, which 

 are regarded by mankind, in general as noxious, and at beft as; 

 ufelefs beings in the creation. 



The nefts of this fpecies are fo numerous all over the ifland of 

 Bananas, and the adjacent continent of Africa, that it is fcarce 

 poftible to ftand upon any open place, fuch as a rice plantation, 

 or other clear fpot, where one of thefe buildings is not to be feen 

 almoft clofe to each other. In fome parts near Senegal, as men- 

 tioned by M. Adanfon, their number, magnitude, and clofenefs 

 of fituation, make them appear like the villages of the natives, 



Thefe buildings are ufually termed hills, by natives as well as 

 ftrangers, from their outward appearance, which is that of little 

 hills, more or lefs conical, generally very much in the form of 

 fugar loaves, and about ten or twelve feet in perpendicular 

 Beight above the common furface of the ground*. 



