212 
STRANGE DWELLINGS. 
and Tournay-Charente have for some years suffered from the 
ravages of the Termites, and now La Rochelle is invaded by 
these terrible destroyers. In all probability they were imported 
by some ship, taken ashore in the boxes into which they had 
penetrated, and thence spread into the country around. Efforts 
are being made towards the extirpation of these terrible insects, 
but nothing seems as yet to have had any great effect. How 
serious are the damages which they work may be seen from the 
following account by M. de Quatrefages, in his ‘ Rambles of a { 
Naturalist/ vol. ii. p. 346 : — 
‘ The Prefecture and a few neighbouring houses are the prin- 
cipal scene of the destructive ravages of the Termites, but here ji 
they have taken complete possession of the premises. In the 
garden, not a stake can be put into the ground, and not a 
plank can be left on the beds, without being attacked within 
twenty-four hours. The fences put round the young trees are j 
gnawed from the bottom, while the trees themselves are gutted 
to the very branches. 
4 Within the building itself, the apartments and offices are 
alike invaded. I saw upon the roof of a bedroom that had 
been recently repaired, galleries made by the Termites which 
looked like stalactites, and which had begun to show them- 
selves the very day after the workmen had left the place. In 
the cellars I discovered similar galleries, which were within 
half-way between the ceiling and the floor, or running along the 
walls and extending no doubt up to the very garrets ; for on 
the principal staircase other galleries were observed between 
the ground floor and the second floor, passing under the 
plaster wherever it was sufficiently thick for the purpose, and 
only coming to view at different points where the stones were 
on the surface ; for, like other species, the Termites of La I 
Rochelle always work under cover wherever it is possible for I 
them to do so. 
4 MM. Milne-Edwards and Blanchard have seen galleries 
which descended without any extraneous support from the 
ceiling to the floor of a cellar. M. Bobe-Moreau cites several 
curious instances of this mode of construction. Thus, for 
