178 Mr. smeathman’s Account of 
They fometimes, in carrying on this bufinefs, find, I will 
not pretend to fay how, that the poft has fome weight to fup- 
port, and then if it is a convenient track to the roof, or is itfelf 
a kind of wood agreeable to them, they bring their mortar, 
and fill all or moft of the cavities, leaving the neceffary roads 
through it, and as fail: as they take away the wood replace the 
vacancy with that material ; which being worked together by 
them ciofer and more compa£tly than human ftrength or art 
could ram it, W'hexi the houfe is pulled to pieces, in order to 
examine if any of the pofts are fit to be ufed again, thofe of the 
fofter kinds are often found reduced almoft to a (hell, and all or 
a greater part transformed from wood to clay as folid and as 
hard as many kinds of free-ftone ufed for building in England. 
It is much the fame when th t Termites bellkofi get into a cheft 
or trunk containing cloaths and other things; if the weight 
we cannot in the prefent harmonious flate of things form any idea * • whereas now 
being confumed by thefe animals, they are more eafily broken in pieces by the 
waves ; and the fragments which are not devoured become fpecifically lighter, 
and are ' confequently more readily and more effectually thrown on fliore, -where the 
fun, wind, infe&s, and various other inftruments, fpeedily promote their entire 
dilfolution, and reflore the conftituent particles, to that 
— 44 Mighty hand, 
44 Which, ever bufy, wheels the iilent fpheres ; 
44 Works in the fecret deep ; fnoots, beaming, thence 
44 The fair profufiori that o’erfpreads the fpring ; 
44 Flings from the fun direfl the flaming day ; 
44 Feeds every creature ; hurls the. temped: forth j 
46 And, as on earth this grateful change revolves, 
44 With tranfport touches all the fprings of life.’* Thomson* 
* That wood will endure In water arf 'amazing number. of ages, is apparent from the <eak flakes which. 
Were driven into the bed of the river Thames on the invasion of. this ifland by 'Julius Cafar- X one of which is 
to be feen in Sir ash-ton lever’s Mufeum, and likewife from thofe bodiesof trees which aredaily found 
in the bogs and moraifes of Great Britain and. Ireland, which after a duration, the former of eighteen 
hundred, the latt«r of upwards of two thosfand years, are found in -a perfect ftaqi of pssfervation. 
above 
