210 INDIKECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



compound microscope in a warehouse at Tobago for a few 

 months, on his return he found that a colony of a small 

 species of white ant had established themselves in it, and had 

 devoured most of the wood-work, leaving little besides the 

 metal and glasses.^ A shorter period sufficed for their 

 demolition of some of Mr. Forbes's furniture. On surveying 

 a room which had been locked up during an absence of a few 

 weeks, he observed a number of advanced works in various 

 directions towards some prints and drawings in English 

 frames ; the glasses appeared to be uncommonly dull, and the 

 frames covered with dust. " On attempting," says he, " to 

 wipe it off, I was astonished to find the glasses fixed to 

 the wall, not suspended in frames as I left them, but com- 

 pletely surrounded by an incrustation cemented by the white 

 ants, who had actually eaten up the deal frames and back- 

 boards, and the greater part of the paper, and left the glasses 

 upheld by the incrustation, or covered way, which they had 

 formed during their depredation."^ It is even asserted that 

 the superb residence of the Governor- General at Calcutta, 

 which cost the East India Company such immense sums, is 

 now rapidly going to decay in consequence of the attacks of 

 these insects.^ — But not content with the dominions they 

 have acquired, and the cities they have laid low on Terra 

 Firma, encouraged by success the white ants have also aimed 

 at the sovereignty of the ocean, and once had the hardihood 

 to attack even a British ship of the line ; and in spite of the 

 efforts of her commander and his valiant crew, having boarded 

 they got possession of her, and handled her so roughly, that 

 when brought into port, being no longer fit for service, she 

 was obliged to be broken up.^ 



And here, I think, I see you throw aside my papers, and 

 hear you exclaim — " Will this enumeration of scourges, 



1 This account of the Termites is chiefly taken from Smeathman in Pkilos. 

 Trans. 1781, and Percival's Ceylon, 307. 



2 Oriental Memoirs, i. 362. 



3 Morning Herald, Dec, 31st, 1814. 



4 The ship here alluded to was the Albion, which was in such a condition 

 from the attack of insects, supposed to be white ants, that, had not the ship 

 been firmly lashed together, it was thought she would have foundered on her 

 voyage home. — The late Mr. Kittoe informed me that the Droguers or Draguers, 

 a kind of lighter employed in the West Indies in collecting the sugar, sometimes 

 so swarm with ants, of the common kind, that they have no other way of getting 

 rid of these troublesome insects than by sinking the vessel in shallow water. 



