some dozen feet in depth. A supply of bricks as large again could
probably still be taken from this convenient depot; and the
missionaries on Lake Tanganyika and onwards to Victoria Nyanza have
been similarly indebted to the labors 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 Pretoria, 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
several distinct species. The most peculiar, as well as the most
ornate, is a small variety from one to two 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 depending like eaves, and sheltering the body
of the hill from rain. To estimate the amount of earth per acre raised
from the waterline of the subsoil by white ants, would not in some
districts be an impossible task; and it would be found probably that
the quantity at least equaled that manipulated annually in temperate
regions by the earthworm.

These mounds, however, are more than mere waste-heaps. Like the
corresponding region underground, they are built into a meshwork of
tunnels, galleries, and chambers, where the social interests of the
community are attended to. The most spacious of these chambers,
usually far underground, is very properly allocated to the head of the
society, the queen. The queen termite is a very rare insect, and as
there are seldom more than one or at most two to a colony, and as the
royal apartments are hidden far in the earth, few persons have ever
seen a queen; and indeed most, if they did happen to come across it,
from its very singular appearance would refuse to believe that it had
any connection with white ants. It possesses indeed the true termite
head, but there the resemblance to the other members of the family
stops; for the size of the head bears about the same proportion to the
rest of the body as does the tuft on his Glengarry bonnet to a
six-foot Highlander. The phenomenal corpulence of the royal body in
the case of the queen termite is possibly due in part to want of
exercise; for once seated upon her throne, she never stirs to the end
of her days. She lies there, a large, loathsome, cylindrical package,