SI 6 Insects of Ceylon. 
nature of tlie glass, cannot be climbed up by the ants. In the 
dwelling-houses, the trunks, chairs, and bed-posts are for the 
same reason placed in tin vessels full of water. I have fre- 
quently seen the large beams of a house almost eaten through 
by these insects, and ready to tumble down on the heads of 
the inhabitants. 
This destructive instinct, however, is not without the most 
singular utility, and is made by the Creator to serve the same 
benevolent purposes, which are conspicuous in every part of his 
plan. In the immense forests which they inhabit, and which 
are never subject to the hand of human cultivation, the con- 
stant accumulation of decayed timber would in time greatly 
impede, if not entirely choak vegetation, were not these 
animals employed by Providence continually to devour it. 
Another instinct is also combined with their destructive in- 
clinations, which in a great measure counteracts them and pre- 
vents their injurious effects. Where the white ants, endowed 
as hey are with such powers of destruction, to carry on their 
operations like other ants in secret, and unobserved by those 
who were interested to obstruct their progress, there would 
hardly be a possibility of preserving from their ravages any 
thing either in the fields or the houses, especially in Ceylon, 
where they are more numerous and destructive than perhaps 
any where else. When they intend to move from one settle- 
ment to another, or when they have fixed on a piece of wood 
or sonie other article which they mean to destroy or effect a 
lodgement in ; before commencing their operations, they first 
raise a tube or hollow passage for themselves, where they may 
work, or pass and repass without being seen. This tube, which 
is about the size of a goose-quill, is made of fine sand, with 
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