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from the infinite number, myriads would come in an instant out of many holes and running over the hand tickle so as to be scarce endurable. Rumphius has an account of this very bulb and its ants in the 6th Vol. p. 120, where he describes also another sort the ants of which are black. The fourth sort were perfectly harmless, at least they provd so to us tho they resembled almost minutely the white ants of the East Indies, the most mischevous Insect I beleive known in the world. Their architecture was however far superior to that of any other species . They had two kinds of Houses, one suspended on the Branches of trees, the other standing upright on the ground. The first sort were generaly 3 or 4 times as large as a mans head; they were built of a brittle substance seemingly made of small parts of vegetables kneaded together with some glutinous matter, probably afforded by themselves; on breaking this outer crust innumerable cells appeard full of inhabitants in winding directions, communicating
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Voyaging Accounts |  |
© Derived from State Library of NSW Transcription of Banks's Journal page (vol. 2) *270, February 2004
Published by kind permission of the Library
To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/-banks_remarks-274.html