82 Capture and Death of a large Alligator. 



quite flattened, which had been discharged into the mouth and 

 at the back of the head, at only the distance of a few feet, and 

 yet the bones had not a single mark to shew that they had 

 been touched. 



At the time of our expedition against the alligator, the pe- 

 riodical visitation of locusts, which occurs about once in seven 

 years, was devastating parts of the island ; and, on the follow- 

 ing day, the place where I resided was doomed to share in the 

 distress. We were flattering ourselves that the scourge would 

 not come near us, when the dark clouds were seen far over the 

 lake approaching noiselessly, save in the rushing of wings, and 

 soon the sun was hid, and night eeemed coming before her 

 time. Mile upon mile in length moved the dark broad column 

 of this insect army ; and the cultivator looked and was silent, 

 for the calamity was too overwhelming for words. The sugar 

 cane, the principal crop of that country, gave promise of un- 

 usual productiveness when the destroyer alighted. In a mo- 

 ment nothing was seen over the extended surface but a black 

 mass of animated matter, heaving like a sea over the hopes of 

 the planter. And when it arose to renew its flight in search 

 of food for the hungry millions who had had no share in the 

 feast, it left behind desolation and ruin. Not a green thing 

 stood where it had been, and the very earth looked as though 

 no redeeming fertility was left to it. Human exertions availed 

 nothing against this enemy ; wherever he came he swept like 

 a consuming fire, and the ground appeared scorched by his 

 presence. Branches of trees were broken by the accumulated 

 weight of countless numbers, and the cattle fled in dismay be- 

 fore the rolling waves of this living ocean. The rewards of 

 government, and the devices of the husbandman, for his own 

 protection, were useless. Myriads of these insects were taken 

 and heaped together, till the air for miles was polluted, with- 

 out apparent diminution of their numbers. 



The typhon was the irresistible agent which at last termi- 

 nated their ravages, and drove them before it far into the Pa- 

 cific. This remedy prostrated what the locust had left, but still 

 it was prayed for as a mercy, and received with thanksgiving. 

 Of the Philippine islands, Luconia is the one best known ; but 

 the world of nature there is yet unexplored, a^nd the few men 



