424 
AUSTRALIAN TERMITID.E, 
headed termites' tall nests; they are generally scattered over the 
northern districts of New South Wales and southern Queensland. 
North of Rockhampton they begin to be noticeable as a pest, 
though the large nests are not very common; from Mackay I 
have at least five species; towards Townsville they increase in 
numbers, and about Charters Towers and northward are a very 
serious trouble. It is only here and there, however, that the 
large mound nests appear; but the arboreal nesting Eutermes, 
though not always building on the trees, seem to be found all 
over the country. From Cooktown and all over Cape York the 
nests are large and numerous; the magnetic nest so well-known 
in Port Darwin being found on the Bloomfield River, north of 
Cooktown.* 
At Somerset (Cape York), there is one of the most remarkable 
termite cities in the world; viewed from the sea, and looking up 
beyond the old Government Residency, now occupied by Mr. 
Frank J ardine's homestead, it appears as if the plain for a mile 
or more in extent is covered with pointed pillars six or seven feet 
in height, broad at the base and tapering to the summit, forming- 
regular symmetrical pyramids. They are thickly dotted over the 
plain, often only a few yards apart; the effect is much heightened 
if the grass has been freshly burnt off, as it had been the first 
time I passed Somerset. 
Several writers have noticed this city of the termites. 
Moseleyf likens them to kiln chimneys; he says that it gives the 
country the appearance of a pottery district in miniature, and 
states that many of them are ten feet high. D'Albertis,; writing 
of this place, says: — "Termite nests, both on the hills and plains, 
measured often ten feet in height and thirteen feet in circum- 
ference at the base"; he found upon opening them that many were 
attacked and often almost exterminated by large black ants. 
* D. Le Soeuf. A visit to the Bloomfield River. Victorian Naturalist, 
Vol xxi. 1894, p. 25. 
t H. N. Moseley, I.e. p. 302. 
X D'Albertis, I.e. p. 229, Vol. i. 
