descend three or four feet perpendicularly among the gravel, from which the labouring Termites collect the finer parts, and working them up in their mouths, convert them into a kind of mortar or solid clay, of which their hills, and all their buildings except their nur series, are composed.
It is difficult to give a European an. idea of the ravages these little creatures occasion: they destroy every substance that can be penetrated by their sharp forceps. They will devour the whole inside of large trees that are beginning to decay; eat through floors; or consume the internal parts of the props of houses, so that the roofs would fall in, were it not for a most extraordinary instinct that prompts them to prevent this ruin to themselves, by filling the cavities they have made with their own mortar; so that the supports of the house, which were wood, become, in effect, stone. No caution is sufficient, in hot climates, against their depre dations. But though so injurious and troublesome, let us not suppose that they do not compensate for their rapacity, by contributing powerfully to the health and comfort of man, by destroying putrid substances, which, in these sultry climates, if left to the gradual pro gress of natural decay, would produce the most baneful effects.
