172 
ST. HELENA- 
by an earthquake, or, as a visitor remarked, a state of siege — the 
chief church in ruins, public buildings in a deplorable state of 
dilapidation, private houses tottering and falling, with great timber 
props, butting out into the streets and roadways, meeting the eye 
at every turn, and astounding the stranger by a tale of some awful 
risk incurred merely when walking along the pavements ; while the 
Governor in his council-chamber, the Chief Justice, and other 
officials, were accessible only through a labyrinth of fir-poles and 
old ship-planking set on end to prevent ceilings falling on their 
heads, or, worse still, whole buildings collapsing around them. Many 
valuable lives of illustrious visitors were, during that period, risked 
in climbing over temporary galleries or propped-up floors, merely 
to show the usual respect tor the Governor by an official call. 
lennes tenuis is the most voracious species I have ever heard 
or read of, its whole object in life seeming to be destruction. 
It spares none of its time for domestic arrangements, or the con- 
struction of those curiously- formed homes, in the shape of hillocks or 
mounds, with which other species amuse or occupy themselves in 
the desert plains of tropical Africa and elsewhere. It is true it 
inhabits the ground, but it has other motives for being there than 
mere home arrangements, and does not indulge in a queen, that 
enormous fat creature, the care of whom devolves upon her 
subjects, and of whom we read, with reference to other species, that, 
if she escapes being eaten by black natives, she lays an innumerable 
quantity of eggs and then dies. 
The St. Helena Termites are fragile little creatures, of a dirty- 
white colour, about one-third of an inch long, and succumb imme- 
diately on exposure to bright sunshine. In proportion to about ten 
of the workers there is one armed with a formidable pair of red 
forceps, an eighth of an inch in length, which is called a soldier. 
This creature superintends the work done by the others, and acts 
the part of a sentinel, giving immediate notice throughout the band 
or colony of the approach of danger. It is most curious to watch 
them at work building a tunnel or covered passage by which to 
travel from one spot to another, .for they do everything under cover, 
and nothing by the broad light of day. The work proceeds by 
pellet after pellet of a sticky, brown, mud-like matter, which they 
employ, being added round the edge from the inside, and moistened 
to make it adhere to the rest. Occasionally, as a worker deposits 
