100 



A close watch should always be kept on land that has 

 been cleared of timber and if a tree is seen to be attacked, 

 every endeavour should be made to discover the source of 

 infection, which will invariably be found to be a buried root 

 or stump, from which the termites make their way in search 

 of food by means of tunnels. These may be found at a 

 depth of 6" to 3' below the surface of the ground. In flat 

 land, I have never found them below the sub soil water level, 

 which of course is regulated by the efficiency of the drain- 

 age system. 



These tunnels are as a rule, (as Mr. Pratt says) suf- 

 ficiently large to admit the introduction of an ordinary mi- 

 croscope slide though sometimes smaller, they are perfectly 

 smooth and are lined with a red substance, probably the 

 excreta of the termites which takes its colour from the 

 timber on which they have been feeding. This colouring 

 greatly facilitates the following up of the tunnels but it is 

 by no means an easy matter until the coolies become prac- 

 ticed at it and see for themselves that they are doing real 

 good and not merely following out some mad scheme of 

 their masters. When the direction of a tunnel is lost it is 

 very difficult to pick it up again. I have found the surest 

 means of not losing it, is to use a piece of thin flexible wire 

 or strip of cane as a probe. Pass it into the tunnel as 

 far as it will go, remove the top soil carefully with i\ 

 chunkol, then break open the run to the end of the probe. 

 Pass the probe in again and proceed as before until the 

 termitarium is reached. To find the tunnel or to pick it 

 up again should it be lost, I have found it a good plan to cut 

 a trench round the tree attacked or the spot where the run 

 was lost. This trench should be to the depth of the water 

 level, say two feet, and should be examined the next day 

 when it will often be found that the termites have made 

 their way across by means of a mud casing, thus deter- 

 mining the direction of attack. 



It is tedious matter at the best to follow up these tun- 

 nels and it is on this account that I have found it expedient 

 to examine all timber which I know to be likely to contain 

 termitaria before resorting to this means thereby saving 

 much time and expense. 



At first I gave rewards for the Queens and have collect- 

 ed in this way upwards of seventy undoubted specimens but 

 1 find that by this method the coolies waste much of their 

 time in breaking up every smaller piece of the termitaria 

 in order to find the Queen cells. 



