appendix] WEST INDIES. 87 
The use of fire afforded a greater probability of success; 
for (from whatever cause) it was observed, that if wood, 
burnt to the state of charcoal, without flame, and im¬ 
mediately taken from the fire, was laid in their way, they 
crowded to it in such amazing numbers as soon to extin¬ 
guish it, although with the destruction of thousands of 
them in effecting it. This part of their history appears 
scarcely credible; but, on making the experiment myself, 
I found it literally true. I laid fire, as above described, 
where there appeared but very few ants, and in the course 
of a few minutes thousands were seen crowding- to it and 
upon it, till it was perfectly covered by their dead bodies. 
Holes were therefore dug at proper distances in a cane piece, 
and fire made in each hole. Prodigious quantities perished 
in this way : for those fires, when extinguished, appeared 
in the shape of mole hills, from the numbers of their dead 
bodies heaped on them. Nevertheless the ants soon appear¬ 
ed again, as numerous as ever. This may be accounted for, 
not only from their amazing fecundity, but that probably, 
none of the breeding ants or young brood suffered from 
the experiment. 
For the same reason, the momentary general application 
of fire by burning the cane trash (or straw of the cane) as 
it lay on the ground, proved as little effectual; for although, 
perhaps, multitudes of ants might have been destroyed, yet 
in general they would escape by retiring "to their nests un¬ 
der cover, out of its reach, and the breeding ants, with 
their young progeny, must have remained unhurt. 
This calamity, which resisted so long the efforts of the 
planters, was at length removed by another; which, how¬ 
ever ruinous to the other islands in the West Indies, and in 
other respects, was to Grenada proved a very great blessing; 
namely, the hurricane in 1780; without which it is pro¬ 
vable, the cultivation of the sugar-cane in the most valu- 
