264 MULE -HUNTING EXPEDITION. 



shrub, as far as the eye could wander, had strug- 

 gled into life. 'Tis true a stunted artemisia, or 

 wild-sage bush, had fought its way inch by inch 

 in its struggle for existence, and looked so old, 

 dry, and parched, that your idea was, if you 

 laid a finger on it, it would powder up like 

 dried herbs; but whatever had been in shape 

 of grass, or herb, or shrub, was gone, cleared 

 bodily and entirely away by the field-crickets. 



Never shall I forget this insect array. On 

 getting well upon the plains, I found every 

 inch of ground covered with field-crickets ; they 

 were as thick on the ground as ants on a hill ; the 

 mules could not tread without stepping on them ; 

 not an atom or vestige of vegetation remained, 

 the ground as clear as a planed floor. It was 

 about twenty good long miles to the next water, 

 and straight across the sand-plains, and, for that 

 entire distance, the crickets were as thick as ever. 

 It is impossible to estimate the quantity ; but 

 when you suppose a space of ground twenty-seven 

 miles long, and how wide I know not, but at least 

 twice that, covered with crickets as thick as they 

 could be packed, you can roughly imagine what 

 they would have looked like if swept into a heap. 



It was long after sundown when we reached 

 the water, tired, thirsty, and utterly worn-out; 



