BY WALTER W. FROGGATT. 425 



On Thursday Island and the many islands round Cape York, 

 the same form of nest is met with; turning down into the Gulf 

 country and to the watershed of the Flinders River and its 

 tributaries, we find one of the most termite-infested localities in the 

 world. Nothing is too hard or dry for them; stockyards, fences 

 and houses only last for a few years in spite of all precautions; 

 a branch is attacked as soon as it is dead, and in many places no 

 stumps or dry wood is left in the scrubby forests; everything is 

 swept up as it were by these underground gnomes, who as forest 

 scavengers do their duty tliorouglily. If one cuts some grass for 

 a bed and leaves it lying upon the ground for 2 J: hours, anywhere 

 on the lower Flinders, one will find it cut up into fine chaff" by the 

 termites which have come up from the earth beneath, and if one is 

 inexperienced enough to leave his blankets on the top of it, he 

 will find all the lower folds riddled with holes. Earth scoops and 

 carts that had been left in the paddocks for a while at Cambridge 

 Downs Station were brought in with the felloes of the wheels 

 (hard seasoned timber) gnawed to a shell, while things in the 

 store had to be constantly turned over, as they even carried their 

 clay up into the cases of soap, jams and meats, which not only 

 destroyed the boxes but caused holes to rust in the tins and spoil 

 their contents. At a hut on this station where I used to camp, 

 the sides were 'ouilt of upright saplings about six inches in 

 diameter; the termites had worked their way up these, reducing 

 each to a simple pipe of bark. In the silence of the night I have 

 often lain awake listening to the sound of the millions of tiny 

 jaws gnawing at these timbers, voices of the night as strange and 

 uncanny as one could well imagine. 



Passing from Norman ton towards Port Darwin, we are still in 

 thickly infested country, and about ten miles out from Palnierston 

 are some of the tallest termite nests in the world. I am indebted 

 to Mr. N. Holze, the Curator of the Botanic Gardens there, for 

 photographs and specimens from these and the magnetic nests, 

 which will be dealt with in detail later on, together wdth the 

 species that form them. 



In that portion of JSTorth-western Austi-alia stretching across 

 from Cambridge Gulf to Roel^uck Bay, known as the Kimberley 



