62 The Great World's Farm 



generally are about the size of a small gas-pipe, some 

 occasionally larger, and here and there are large chambers 

 covering nearly the whole trunk for some feet. Every 

 branch, every twig has a tunnel, and as for the dead wood 

 which falls to the ground, none is ever to be seen, as it is 

 at once encased in soil. At first sight the traveler may 

 think he has found a faggot, but on closer inspection it 

 proves to be nothing but a cast in mud, a very perfect 

 cast, with all, even the minutest knots reproduced. But 

 of trunks, branches, boughs, or even twigs lying about 

 on the ground, there is nothing to be seen. All are 

 eaten up. 



But the tunnels do not represent nearly all the termite's 

 work, though they are much. Besides these, there are 

 the nests, mounds of earth of huge size, which are a com- 

 mon feature of the African landscape, and can be seen 

 for miles. In India they are seldom more than a couple 

 of feet or so in height, but in Central Africa they are 

 from ten to seventeen feet high and contain many tons of 

 earth, while the excavations beneath are many feet and 

 even yards deep. 



The mounds are not solid, but composed of many tun- 

 nels, chambers, and galleries, yet they are so strong that 

 they will bear the weight of a man on horseback. The 

 exterior is, indeed, brick-like or stone-like in its hardness, 

 but with all its strength it must give way at last beneath 

 the fury of the tropical rains, which continue off and on 

 for two or three months at a time, and thus the soil is 

 returned to the earth enriched by its admixture with ani- 

 mal matter. 



Ants, true ants, as well as white ants, abound every- 

 where within the tropics, but they also do a large amount 



