-312 Wanderings in Eastern Africa. 
plants, or more probably contributes to other growths 
by its deep shade and abundant moisture. Another 
plant very similar to it in general appearance is com- 
mon, but it lacks the obe's bulb and thorns, and its arms 
are not so long and abundant. The botanist might 
find something to interest him even in this wilderness. 
I have been told that valuable gums exude from the 
trees that are found here, but I cannot confirm it 
from my own observation. 
The soil was generally of a red colour ; but some- 
times it changed for a Hght grey, and occasionally for 
a dark loam. A remarkable feature of the district 
is its numerous ant-hills. They rise on all hands, 
and assume all manner of fantastic shapes, chimney 
pots, funnels, minarets, spires, cones, etc. They are 
capital indicators of the nature and colour of the soil, 
and seem almost as if they had been thrown up for this 
very purpose. This wilderness appears to exist almost 
entirely for the white ants. Their tiny earth-tunnels 
run over the surface of the land like a close network. 
Beneath these tunnels, sheltered from the sun, they 
perform their peregrinations in search of everything 
ligneous, which when found they fall upon and de- 
vour ; the huge trunk as well as the tiny twig, leaving 
nothing but a little mud to mark the spot where they 
may have been. Dry standing trees are also attacked, 
being entered from the inside, and consumed until 
nothing remains but hollow tubes. The trees at 
length fall, and the work of destruction is finished be- 
low. Thus they keep the wilderness free of super- 
fluous wood : but what about coal deposits for future 
ages } Coal must clearly be looked for in countries of 
which this insect is not a native. 
