COUNTRY COVERED WITH ANT-HILLS 231 



abruptly departed, going southward, and we saw no more 

 of them. They were exceedingly fine men, most of them 

 being five feet nine or ten inches in height, and well pro- 

 portioned. There were no old men amongst them, the 

 oldest not exceeding forty years. 



Seven miles beyond the wood we came to a patch of 

 most extraordinary looking country. It was covered with 

 enormous ant-hills, many of them nearly twenty feet high. 

 They completely shut off our view of the distant country ; 

 and we seemed to be passing through a necropolis of 

 strange tumuli. Many bones were strewn about, the place 

 seeming to be a favourite haunt of the wild dogs, whose 

 monotonous howling we heard both night and day, though 

 we never saw more than five or six of the animals at a 

 time. These ant-hills were, many of them at least, of 

 great age, the sides rutted and seamed deeply, and often 

 covered with a kind of brown, yellow, and reddish lichens. 



The colonists are fond of remarking that nobody has 

 ever seen a freshly erected ant-hill, and that there is some 

 mystery about their formation. This is simply a popular 

 error. Ant-hills of all sizes may be found where these 

 insects (Termites) abound. They are increased in size so 

 gradually that their growth is not perceptible to the 

 careless eye. By constant watching I have perceived that 

 small hills are thrown up comparatively more quickly than 

 they are afterwards increased in size. In the first year 

 they may be brought up to a foot in height ; at the end 

 of seven years it is a good hill that is three feet high. 

 After that the increase is very slow — a hill of twenty feet 

 high is probably several hundred years old. The highest 

 hill I have measured, near the Burdekin River, Queens- 

 land, was twenty-two feet four inches. Hills of fourteen 

 to eighteen feet are very common, both in Queensland and 

 in the Port Darwin district. 



Ant-hills, especially the large and old ones, are 

 generally crowded with parasites, of which the largest are 

 rats and snakes. Whether or not these annoy the ants I 

 could not ascertain, but the latter are powerless to remove 

 them. Quite large snakes burrow into the hills, and a 



