THE TERMITE , OR WHITE ANT 
213 
instance, he saw isolated galleries or arcades, which were 
thrown horizontally forward like a tubular bridge, in order to 
reach a piece of paper that was wrapped round a bottle, the 
contents of a pot of honey, &c. 
‘It is generally only by incessant vigilance that we can 
trace the course of their devastations and prevent their 
ravages. At the time of M. Audoin’s visit a curious proof 
was accidentally obtained of the mischief which this insect 
silently accomplishes. One day it was discovered that the 
archives of the Department were almost totally destroyed, 
I , and that without the slightest external trace of any damage. 
The Termites had reached the boxes in which these docu- 
ments were preserved by mining the wainscoting ; and they 
had then leisurely set to work to devour these administrative 
records, carefully respecting the upper sheets and the mar- 
gin of each leaf, so that a box which was only a mass, 
of rubbish, seemed to contain a pile of papers in perfect 
order.’ 
In the British Museum are several examples of the ravages 
worked by Termites, one of which is an ordinary beam that 
has been so completely hollowed and eaten away, that nothing 
remains but a mere shell no thicker than the wood of a band- 
box. 
Besides the species which were investigated by M. de 
Quatrefages, there are others in the south of France, and 
in Sardinia and Spain. One species, Termes flavicollis , chiefly 
attacks and destroys the olives, while in the Landes and 
Gironde the oaks and firs are killed by another species, Termes 
lucifugns. 
As the limits of the work preclude a very lengthened 
account of any one creature, our history of the Termites must 
here be concluded, although much interesting matter remains 
unwritten. 
In the accompanying illustration are figured the nests of two 
insects, both of them natives of tropical America, and both 
belonging to the hymenopterous order. The upper insect is 
