the Termites of Africa and other hoi Climates . 1S3 
fedlion, and which would, by a tedious decay, ferve only 
to encumber the face of the earth. This purpofe they anfwer 
fo efteftually, that nothing perifhable efcapes them, and it is 
almoft impoffibfe 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 definition 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 deftru&ion of deferred 
towns is fo effectually 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 leaft veftige of an houfe is to be difcovered. 
The firft 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 
ftrong hoe or pick-axe, in the fpace of a few feconds a foldier 
will runout, and walkabout 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 
moft frequently, in a fhort time, is followed by two or three 
others, who run as faff as they can, ftraggling after one ano- 
ther, and are foon followed by a large body who rufh out as 
faff as the breach will permit them, and fo they proceed, the 
number increafing, as long as any one continues battering 
their building It is not eafy to defcribe the rage and 
fury 
(44) “ They throw up little hills of feven or eight feet high, fo very, full of 
u holes that they rather feem like honey-combs than burrows. Thefe Ant hills 
** are of a very fmall circumference in proportion to their height, being fliarp at top, 
4t fo that to judge by the looks of them one would think the wind could blow them 
44 down* 
