INFLUENCE OF BURROWING ANIMALS. 299 



How deep the galleries of the white ants penetrate the soil I do not 

 know, and I have not been able to find any record of the observations of 

 others upon this subject. ^^ The size of the nests of clay above ground, 

 however — from 1 to 12 feet in height and from 1 to 10 feet in diameter — 

 is certainly enough to justify the belief that these channels are extensive. 



They are not confined to any particular kind of country or soil, so far 

 as I could ascertain, but they are more abundant in some regions than 

 in others. They are especially. noticeable on the taboleiros and chapadas 

 of the interior and in the campo or timberless regions generally, where 

 th^y are a common feature of the landscape. I am not sure, however, 

 that their abundance in the campos is not apparent rather than real, for 

 even were they equally so in the forests their presence would not be so 

 noticeable, f I have observed them from the state of Parana to north of 

 the Amazon. Along the upper Paraguay in Matto Grosso I have seen 

 places where the nests are so close together that one could almost walk 

 upon them for several hundred yards at a time, while over many acres of 

 ground no one of the nests was more than 10 feet from another. J 



The cupim or termites houses vary much in form. Some of them, as 

 Burmeister facetiously suggests, bear a strong resemblance to gigantic 

 Irish potatoes. They are mostly domed or rounded, but many of those 

 of the upper Paraguay are tall and slender and peaked, and are as much 

 as 6 or 7 feet tall, though not usually quite so high. These tall, slender 

 ones are commonly known SiS frades de pedra or stone friars. § 



On the campos of the Amazon valley north of Macapa the nests are 

 usually tall and large. Mr Horace E. Williams, chief topographer of the 

 Geological Survey of Sao Paulo, writes me that about Taubate, in Sao 

 Paulo, these nests are frequently 8 feet high, while about the city of Sao 

 Paulo they are only 2 or 3 feet high. Over the campos of Minas, Bahia, 

 Pernambuco and the interior generally they vary from 2 to 12 feet in 

 height and from 2 to 10 feet in circumference. || 



Mr Charles J. Dulley says he has seen the termites nests about Cax- 

 ambu, in the southern part of Minas Geraes, as much as 12 feet high and 

 5 feet across at the base. He tells of a case of one of these abandoned 

 mounds having been hollowed out and used by a baker as an oven. 



*Drammond tells of pits of white ants in the Lake Nyassa region of Africa "some dozen feet in 

 depth." The white ant: a theory. Henry Drummond. Good Words, 1885, p. 303. 



f Burmeister expresses the opinion that they are more abundant in the woods than in the 

 campos. Reise nach Bi-asilien, p. 491. 



X See also Viagem ao redor do Brazil. Joao Severiano da Fonseea. Rio de Janeiro, 1880, i, p. 352. 



g The only good picture I have seen of the nests of termites is that given in the Challenger re- 

 ports and talcen at cape York, northern Australia. Narrative of the Cruise, vol. i, pt. 2, pi. xx, p. 532. 



II Travels in South America. Alexander Caldcleugh. London, 1825, ii, p. 194. Voyage dans les 

 Provinces de Rio de Janeiro et de Minas Geraes. Aug. de Saint-Hilaire. Paris, 1830, i, p. 108. 

 Notices of Brazil in 1828 and 1829. R. Walsh. Boston, 1831, vol. ii, p. 51. Reise nach Brasilien. 

 Von Burmeister, p. 491. Reise in Brasilien. Spix u. Martins, ii, p. 719. Voyage au Bresil. Prince 

 Maximilien. Paris, 1822, iii, p. 129. 



