502 
WHITE ANTS. 
my compound microscope. It was of mahogany,, 
and I had left it in the store of Colonel Campbell 
of Tobago, for a few months, while I made the tour 
of the Leeward Islands. On my return I found 
these insects had done much mischief in the store, 
and, among other things, had taken possession of 
the microscope, and eaten every thing about it ex- 
cept the glass or metal, and the board on which the 
pedestal is fixed, with the drawers under it, and the 
things enclosed. The cells were built all lound 
the pedestal and the tube, and attached to it on 
every side. Ail the glasses which were covered 
with the wooden substance of their nests, retained 
a cloud of a gummy nature upon them that was 
not easily got off, and the lacker or burnish with 
which the brass work was covered was totally 
spoiled. Another party had taken a liking to a 
Madeira cask, and had let out almost a pipe of fine 
old wine. If the large species of Africa (the Ter- 
mites bellicosi ) had been so long in the uninter- 
rupted possession of such a store, they would not 
have left twenty pounds weight of wood remaining 
of the whole building, and all that it contained. 
“ These insects are not less expeditious in de- 
stroying the shelves, wainscoting, and other fix- 
tures of a house, than the house itself. They are 
for ever piercing and boring in all directions, and 
sometimes go out of the broadside of one post into 
that of another joining to it ; but they prefer and 
always destroy the softer substances the first, and 
are particularly fond of pine and fir boards, which 
