.November. Aew> or rather were driven by the wind into their mafferils VrrW grounds; where the people being then bufy in getting in their corn, neither could, nor, indeed, as they had plenty of other food, did they need to fpend their time in catching thefe infe<fts. As my hoil’s only fon likewife tailed .one o f thefe winged ants, I was induced to follow his example. ' It feemed to me merely to feel cold in the 'mouth, without any particular taile; though with greens, •it would, probably, make as good a difh.as feago, or crabs, -thofe fcorpion-like infedls, which we have accuilomed our- ielves to eat in Europe. In one part of Carniolia near the .Danube, where they are ufed to colledl ephemera by the cart-load for the purpofe o f manuring their land, an im- fecl-eating race like the Hottentots would, doubtlefs, make -as good a feail upon them, as they do in Africa upon ants- and. loicuils. Whether the moil mifchievous fpecies o f termes, the termes fatale, Syil. Nat. or, as they are called,, ¡the; white ants o f the Eail and Weil-Iiidies, whether thefe .naturally inhabit the Cape, I cannot determine with any degree o f certainty ; though it has been often aflerted, that the white ants fometimes come thither with the Eail-India ihips, and neflle themfelves in there for feme time. Mr. I m m e l m a n ’ s parents told me, that a brick floor, laid upon the bare earth in the lower part of the houfe, funk all at once to the extent o f about four, feet fquare and two feet deep: and it Was found, that this unexpected mine proceeded from feme white ants, which had made their nefts beneath the flooring, and from thence likewife had begun to form avenues to: the pantry. However, they deilroyed at once the whole colony of thefe unwelcome guefts, by pouring pouring boiling water upon them. Otherwife people are November. wont, according to the accounts I have received from thofe who have been in the Eail-Indies, to drive away thefe infe rs with petrolseum, and other ilrong-fcented oils.- Rotten fiih, which are faid to be as bad as poifon to piimires, would likewife, probably, clear the houfes o f the termes. Though, perhaps, the ilrorigeit poifon for thefe infedls is arfenic; as a fmall pinch of it only llrewed in any place in the vicinity of them will, according to M. C hanv e - l o n , in his Voyage to Martinico, kill many millions o f them in a few hours. The damages caufed by the white ants, as they are called, (which, however, perhaps, coniiit of many different fpecies) may be pretty well guefled at from what has been faid already. It, however, deferves likewife to be mentioned, that merchandize to an infinite amount are deitroy- ed yearly both in the Eail and Weft-Indies by thefe vermin. In the fpace of a few hours they are able to eat into a cheil, and, as it were, cut to pieces all the linen, filk, clothes, and books in i t ; on which account, people in thefe countries are obliged to have their trunks and merchandize flung upon ropes. It is likewife, perhaps, capable o f multiplying its fpecies more than any other in fe it; for Profeffor L i n n a e u s very kindly fire wed me a female, which he had juil before received from the Eail-Indies, •and which was an inch and a half long, and of an extreme bulk, and confequently capable of laying millions of eggs. Though I could not learn whether the more noxious fpecies of white ants are natives of the Cape or not, yet it is very well known, that Africa, at leaft that part o f it
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