I 139 ] 



THE LOCUST. 



Dr. Clarkk in his Travels in Tartary, on approaching Cuffa, 

 thus notices the number of locusts. 



" We now began to perceive the truth of those surprising 

 relations which we had often heard and read concerning the 

 locust in countries infested with that insect. The steppes were 

 entirely covered by their bodies ; and their numbers falling, 

 resembled flakes of snow, carried obliquely by the wind, and 

 spreading a thick mist over the sun. Myriads fell over the 

 carriage, the horses and the drivers. The stories of these ani- 

 mals, told us by the Tartars, were more marvellous than any 

 we had before heard. They said that instances had occurred 

 of persons being suffocated by a fall of locusts in the steppes. 

 It was now the season, they further added, in which their 

 numbers began to diminish. When they first make their ap- 

 pearance, a thick dark cloud is seen very high in the air, which, 

 as it passes, obscures the sun. I had always supposed the 

 stories of the locust to exaggerate their real appearance ; but 

 found their swarms so astonishing in all the steppes over which 

 we passed in this part of our journey, that the whole face of 

 nature might have been described as concealed by a living veil. 

 They were of two kinds; the Gry litis Tartaricus, and the Gryl- 

 lus migratorius or common migratory locust. The first is al- 

 most twice the size of the second, and since it precedes the 

 other, bears the name of the Herald or Messenger. The mi- 

 gratory locust has red legs, and its inferior wings have a live- 

 ly red colour, which gives a bright fiery appearance to the ani- 

 mal when fluttering in the sun's rays. The strength of limbs 

 possessed by it is amazing : when pressed down by the hand 

 upon a table, it has almost power to raise the fingers ; but 

 this force resides wholly in the legs ; for if one of these be 

 broken off, which happens by the slightest accident, the power 

 of action ceases. There is yet a third variety of locust, Gryl- 

 lus viridissimus of Linnaeus, found near the Don and the Ku- 

 ban, which is entirely of a green colour. This last I have since 

 seen upon the banks of the Cam in my own country, and felt 

 for the moment intimidated, lest such a presage should be the 

 herald of the dreadful scourge which the locust bears where- 

 ever it abounds. On whatever spot these animals fall, the 

 whole vegetable produce disappears. Nothing escapes them, 

 from the leaves of the forest to the herbs of the plain. Fields, 

 vineyards, gardens, pasture, everything is laid waste; and 

 sometimes the only appearance left upon the naked soil is a 

 disgusting superficies caused by their putrifying bodies, the 

 stench of which is sufficient to breed a pestilence." 



