The Three Voyages of Captain Cook Round the World. Vol. II. Being the Second of the First VoyageCook, James
History
The Three Voyages of Captain Cook Round the World. Vol. II. Being the Second of the First Voyage
Cook, James
Cook, James, 1728-1779 -- Travel; Explorers -- Great Britain -- Biography; Voyages around the world -- History -- 18th century
We found a fourth kind, which are perfectly harmless, and almost exactly
resemble the white ants of the East Indies; the architecture of these is
still more curious than that of the others. They have houses of two
sorts, one is suspended on the branches of trees, and the other erected
upon the ground: those upon the trees are about three or four times as
big as a man’s head, and are built of a brittle substance, which seems
to consist of small parts of vegetables kneaded together with a
glutinous matter, which their bodies probably supply; upon breaking this
crust, innumerable cells, swarming with inhabitants, appear in a great
variety of winding directions, all communicating with each other, and
with several apertures that lead to other nests upon the same tree; they
have also one large avenue, or covered way, leading to the ground, and
carried on under it to the other nest or house that is constructed
there. This house is generally at the root of a tree, but not of that
upon which their other dwellings are constructed: it is formed like an
irregularly sided cone, and sometimes is more than six feet high, and
nearly as much in diameter. Some are smaller, and these are generally
flat-sided, and very much resemble in figure the stones which are seen
in many parts of England, and supposed to be the remains of druidical
antiquity. The outside of these is of well-tempered clay, about two
inches thick; and within are the cells, which have no opening outwards,
but communicate only with the subterranean way to the houses on the
tree, and to the tree near which they are constructed, where they ascend
up the root, and so up the trunk and branches, under covered ways of the
same kind as those by which they descended from their other dwellings.
To these structures on the ground they probably retire in the winter, or
rainy seasons, as they are proof against any wet that can fall; which
those in the tree, though generally constructed under some overhanging
branch, from the nature and thinness of their crust or wall, cannot be.
The sea in this country is much more liberal of food to the inhabitants
than the land; and though fish is not quite so plenty here as they
generally are in higher latitudes, yet we seldom hauled the seine
without taking from fifty to two hundred weight. They are of various
sorts; but, except the mullet, and some of the shell-fish, none of them
are known in Europe: most of them are palatable, and some are very
delicious. Upon the shoals and reef there are incredible numbers of the
finest green turtle in the world, and oysters of various kinds,
particularly the rock-oyster and the pearl-oyster. The gigantic cockles
have been mentioned already; besides which there are sea-crayfish, or
lobsters, and crabs; of these however we saw only the shells. In the
rivers and salt creeks there are alligators.
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