o;2 
D ~ 
Mr. Castles’s Ob/ervations on 
which therefore become (ickly and {tinted, and confequerrt f I 
do not afford juices fit for making fugar in either tolerable 
quantity or quality. 
That thefe ants do not feed on any part of the canes or trees 
affected feems very clear, for no lots of 1ubtbr.ee in either me 
one or the other has ever been obferved ; nor have they ever 
been feen carrying off vegetable fubftarc s of any fort. Ins 
truth of this will farther appear by the following fact. 
A very fine lime-tree, in the pad u re of Mount William 
eftate, at a confiderable dhbn.ee from any canes, but near the 
dwelling boufe, had fickened and died loon after the ants made 
tlmir^appearance on that effate. After ^ had remained in - 
ftate, without a Angle leaf, or the lead verdure, for kve.a. 
months, on examination, a very few ants appeared about it 5 but 
when with the manager’s permiffion it was grabbed out, a 
aftonifhing quantity of ants and tots ’nefts, full of eggs, were 
found about its roots, all of which were quite dead, and many j 
of them rotten. „ 
That this tree conflituted no part of their food is quite 
certain ; but, while it continued to afford them, proper lecunty 
, for their nefts, they ftill continued their abode. 
On the contrary, there is the greateft preemption tnat thele 
ants are carnivorous, and feed entirely on animal fubftances ; 
for if a dead infeft, or animal food of any iort, was laid in 
their wav, it was immediately carried off. It was found almoft 
impoffible to preferve cold viftuals from them. The largeit 
carcaffes, as foon as they began to become putrid, fo as that they 
could feparate the parts, foon difappeared. Negroes witn fores 
had difficulty to keep the ants from the edges of them. bey 
deftroyed all other vermin, rats in particular, fo. w^a t^y 
cleared every -plantation they came upon, which they prooaoly 
