THE SUGAR-ANT. 415 



The use of fire afforded a greater probabilty of 

 success. When wood was burnt to the state of 

 charcoal, without flame, and immediately taken 

 from the fire, and laid in their way, they crowded 

 to it in such astonishing numbers as soon to extin- 

 guish it, although with the destruction of thousands. 

 Holes were therefore dug at proper distances, and 

 a fire made in each of them. Prodigious quantities 

 perished in this way ; for the places of those fireSj 

 when extinguished, appeared in the shape of mole- 

 hills, from the numbers of the dead bodies heaped 

 on them. Nevertheless the ants appeared again as 

 numerous as ever. 



This calamity, which resisted so long the efforts 

 of the planters, was at lenth removed by another> 

 which, however ruinous to the other islands in the 

 West Indies, and in other respects, was to Grenada 

 a very great blessing, namely, the hurricane in 1 780. 

 Without this it is probable that the cultivation of 

 the sugar-cane in the most valuable parts of that 

 island must have, in a great measure, been thrown 

 aside, at least for some time. 



These ants make their nests only under the roots 

 of particular plants and trees, such as the sugar- 

 cane, the lime, lemon, and orange trees, where they 

 are protected from the winds and rain ; and the mis- 

 chief done by them does not arise from their de- 

 vouring those plants, but from these lodgments at 

 their roots. Thus the roots of the sugar-cane are 

 somehow or other so injured by them as to be inca- 

 pable of suppling due nourishment to the plants, 

 which therefore become sickly and stunted, and con- 



