the Termites of Africa and other hot Climates. syy 
bottoms of the pofts, of which the fides of the buildings are 
compofed, bore quite through them, following the courfe of 
the fibres to the top, or making lateral perforations and cavities 
here and there as they proceed. 
While fome are employed in gutting the pods, others afcencl 
from them, entering a rafter or fome other part of the roof. If 
they once. find the thatch, which feems to be a favourite food, 
they foon bring up wet clay, and build their pipes or galleries 
through the roof in various directions, as long as it will l'upport 
them ; fpmetimes eating the palm-tree leaves and branches of 
■which it is compofed, and, perhaps (for variety feems very 
pleafing to them) the rattan or other running plant which is 
ufed as a cord to tye the various parts of the roof together, and 
that to the pofts which fupport it : thus, with the afiiftance of 
the rats, who during the rainy feafon are apt to fhelter them- 
felves there, and to burrow through it, they very foon ruin the 
houfe by weakening the faftenings and expofing it to the wet. 
In the mean time the pofts will be perforated in every direction 
as full of holes as that timber in the bottoms of fihips which 
has been bored by the worms ; the fibrous and knotty parts, 
which are the hardeft, being left to the laft 
They 
(if) The Pea worms, fo pernicious to our fliipping, appear to have the fame 
office allotted them in the waters which the Termites have on the land. They 
will appear, on a very little confideration, to be mod important beings in the great 
chain of creation, and pleafing demondrations of that infinitely wife and gracious 
Power which formed, and dill preferves, the whole in fuch wonderful order and 
beauty ; for if it was not for the rapacity of thefe and fuch animals, tropical 
rivers, and indeed the ocean itfelf, would be choked with the bodies of trees 
which are annually carried down by the rapid torrents, as many of them 
would lad for ages, and probably be productive of evils, of which, happily, 
V 01.. LXXI. A a we 
