the Termites of Africa and other hot Climates . ipp 
above is great, or they are afraid of Ants or other enemies, 
and have time, they carry their pipes through, and replace a 
great part with clay, running their galleries in various direc- 
tions. The tree Termites, indeed, when they get within a 
box, often make a neft there, and being once in poffeffion cleft roy 
it at their leifure. They did fo to the pyramidal box which con - 
tained my compound microfcope. It was of mahogany, and I 
had left it in the ftore of Governor Campbell of Tobago, for 
a few months, while I made the tour of the Leeward Iflands. 
On my return I found thefe infefts had done much mifchief in 
the ftore, and, among other things, had taken pofteffion of the 
microfcope, and eaten every thing about it except the glafs or 
metal, and the board on which the pedeftal is fixed, with the- 
drawers under it, and the things inclofed. The cells were 
built all round the pedeftal and the tube, and attached to it on 
every fide. All the glaffes which were covered with the wooden 
fubftance of their nefts retained a cloud of a gummy nature 
upon them that was not eafily got off, and the lacquer or 
burnifh with which the brafs work was covered was totally 
fpoiled. Another party had taken a liking to the ftaves of 
a Madeira calk, and had let out almoft a pipe of fine old wine. 
If the large fpecies of Africa (the termites bellicoji ) had 
been fo long in the uninterrupted poffeffion of fuch a ftore, 
they would not have left twenty pounds weight of wood re- 
maining, of the whole building, and all that it contained (37). 
Thefe 
(37) Captain phillip of. the navy, who was fome time at the Brazils in the 
fervice of Portugal, gives me the. following relation. “ An engineer returned 
44 from furveying the country, left his trunk on a table: the next morning, not 
44 only all his cloaths were deftroyed by white Ants or Cutters , but his papers alfo ; 
** and the latter ia fuch a manner, that there was not a bit left of an inch fquare, 
A a 2 ^ The 
