of Edinburgh , Session 1884-85. 
143 
But the works above ground represent only a part of the labours 
of these slow-moving but most industrious of creatures. The 
arboreal tubes are only the prolongation of a much more elaborate 
system of subterranean tunnels which extend over large areas and 
mine the earth sometimes to a depth of many feet or even yards. 
The material excavated from these underground galleries and 
from the succession of doomed chambers— used as nurseries and 
granaries — to which they lead, has to be thrown out upon the surface. 
And it is from these materials that the huge ant-hills are reared, 
which form so distinctive a feature of the African landscape. These 
heaps and mounds are so conspicuous that they may be seen for 
miles, and so numerous are they and so useful as cover to the sport- 
man, that without them in certain districts hunting would be im- 
possible. The first things, indeed, to strike the traveller in entering 
the interior are the mounds of the white ant, now dotting the plain 
in groups like a small cemetery, now rising into mounds singly or 
in clusters, each 30 or 40 feet in diameter, and 10 or 15 in 
height, or again standing out against the sky like obelisks, their 
bare sides carved and fluted into all sorts of fantastic shapes. In 
India these ant-heaps seldom attain a height of more than a couple 
of feet, but in Central Africa they form veritable hills, and contain 
many tons of earth. The brick houses of the Scotch mission-station 
on Lake Kyassa have all been built out of a single ants’ nest, and 
the quarry from which the material has been derived forms a pit 
beside the settlement some dozen feet in depth. A supply of bricks 
as large again could probably still be taken from this convenient 
dep6t, and the missionaries on Lake Tanganyika and onwards to 
Victoria Kyanza have been similarly indebted to the labours of the 
termites. In South Africa the Zulus and Kaffirs pave all their 
huts with white-ant earth ; and during the Boer war our troops in 
Praetoria, by scooping out the interior from the smaller beehive- 
shaped ant-heaps, and covering the top with clay, constantly used 
them as ovens. These ant-heaps may be said to abound over the 
whole interior of Africa, and there are three or four distinct varieties. 
The most peculiar, as well as the most ornate, is a small variety 
from 1 to 2 feet in height, which occurs in myriads along the shores 
of Lake Tanganyika. It is built in symmetrical tiers, and 
resembles a pile of small rounded hats, one above another, the rims 
