172 HAUNTS AND HOBBIES 



chambers and galleries in the trunk. The plants they 

 appear to devour simply as food. On this matter I will 

 mention a curious circumstance. It was told me about 

 this time by a very respectable landowner. We were 

 talking about sugarcane. He informed me that the 

 large variety, termed by the natives the " poundah/' 

 had been introduced into this part of the country about 

 forty years previously by the English Government. 

 Then he added that on its first introduction it was 

 with the utmost difficulty the cane could be grown, 

 the white ants attacked it so systematically; but as 

 time passed their attacks grew less frequent, and after 

 a few years they entirely ceased. 



My observations of the white ants were not very 

 prolonged, nor in the least scientific ; they have left 

 unsolved two problems. One, as I have already 

 mentioned, is the use and purpose of the tall conical 

 mounds which with such infinite labour these little 

 creatures erect ; the other is by what means the eggs 

 which the queen lays become deposited in the cells 

 of the combs. Either they must be conveyed to the 

 cells by the other ants, or else the queen must after all 

 be capable of movement. I will conclude my notices 

 of the white ants with the remark that in Upper India 

 they are not found at the height of more than four 

 thousand feet above the level of the sea. 



The damp climate of this station, which so promotes 

 the increase of the white ants, is favourable also to the 

 development of another and more picturesque insect ; 

 this is the firefly. In most parts of these provinces the 

 fireflies are not often seen, but here they abound. They 



