the Termites of Africa and other hot Climates . 
fedlion, and which would, by a tedious decay, ferve only 
to encumber the face of the earth. This purpofe they an fiver 
fo effectually, that nothing perifhable efcapes them, and it is 
almofl impoffible to leave any thing penetrable upon the ground 
a long time in fafety ; for the odds are, that, put it where you 
will abroad, they will find it out before the following morning, 
and its deftrudtion follows very foon of courfe. In confequence 
of this difpofition, the woods never remain long encumbered 
with the fallen trunks of trees or their branches ; and thus it 
is, as I have before obferved, the total deftruction of defected 
towns is fo effedhially completed, that in two or three years a 
thick wood fills the fpace ; and, unlefs iron-wood polls have been 
made ufe of, not the leafe veflige of an houfe is to be difeovered. 
The firfi: object of admiration which ftrikes one upon open- 
ing their hills is the behaviour of the foldiers. If you make a 
breach in a flight part of the building, and do it quickly with a 
flrong hoe or pick-axe, in the fpace of a few feconds a foldier 
will run out, and walk about the breach, as if to fee whether 
the enemy is gone, or to examine what is the caufe of the attack. 
He will fometimes go in again, as if to give the alarm: but 
moil frequently, in a fhort time, is followed by two or three 
others, who run as fall: as they can, draggling after one ano- 
ther, and are foon followed by a large body who rufii out as 
faft as the breach will permit them, and fo they proceed, the/ 
number increafing, as long as any one continues battering 
their building (44). , It is not eafy to deferibe the rage and 
fury 
(44) 64 They throw up little hills of feven or eight feet high, fo very full of 
44 holes that they rather feem likehoney-combs than burrows. Thefe Ant hills 
li are of a very fmall circumference in proportion to theirheight, being fliarp at top, 
04 fo that to judge by the looks of them one would think the wind could blow them 
44 down. 
