They Are Very Useful
In Ridding The Country Of Dead Animal Matter, And, When They Visit
A Human Habitation, Clear It Entirely Of The Destructive White Ants
And Other Vermin.
They destroy many noxious insects and reptiles.
The severity of their attack is greatly increased by their vast numbers,
and rats, mice, lizards, and even the `Python natalensis',
when in a state of surfeit from recent feeding, fall victims
to their fierce onslaught.
These ants never make hills like the white ant.
Their nests are but a short distance beneath the soil,
which has the soft appearance of the abodes of ants in England.
Occasionally they construct galleries over their path
to the cells of the white ant, in order to secure themselves
from the heat of the sun during their marauding expeditions.
JANUARY 15TH, 1855. We descended in one hour from the heights
of Tala Mungongo. I counted the number of paces made on the slope downward,
and found them to be sixteen hundred, which may give a perpendicular height
of from twelve to fifteen hundred feet. Water boiled at 206 Degrees
at Tala Mungongo above, and at 208 Deg. at the bottom of the declivity,
the air being at 72 Deg. in the shade in the former case,
and 94 Deg. in the latter. The temperature generally throughout the day
was from 94 Deg. to 97 Deg. in the coolest shade we could find.
The rivulets which cut up the valley of Cassange were now dry,
but the Lui and Luare contained abundance of rather brackish water.
The banks are lined with palm, wild date-trees, and many guavas,
the fruit of which was now becoming ripe.
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