146 NORTH AMERICAN INSECTS. 



intercepted the solar light, so that when they flew low, 

 the air was so darkened that one person could not 

 see another at the distance of twenty paces."* 



The account of a traveller, Mr. Barrow, of their ra- 

 vages in the southern parts of Africa in 1797, is still 

 more striking. He says, "an area of nearly two thou- 

 sand square miles might be said to be literally covered 

 by them. When driven into the sea by a north-west 

 wind, they formed for fifty miles upon the shore, a 

 bank three or four feet high, and when the wind was 

 south east their stench was so powerful as to be smelt 

 at the distance of a hundred and fifty miles." 



In 1825, the Russian empire was again alarmed by 

 the appearance of an innumerable quantity of Grass- 

 hoppers, of which I had the pleasure (if pleasure it may 

 be called) of being an eye-witness, t 



I left the city of Moscow in the beginning of the 

 month of April, 1825, in order to visit the Crimea, 

 the Caucasus and the countries lying between the 

 Black and Caspian seas. Passing through the well 

 cultivated States (called in Russia, Governments.) of 

 Moscow, Orel, Rasan, Charkow, Kiew and Woronesch, 

 the whole population of these States expressed in a 



*Scc " Introduction to Entomology l>y Kirby and Spcnce, London, 1S18." 



tScc: Versueh cincr Darstellnng des naturlicher Reichthnms, dcr Givssc 

 und Bcvulkcrnng dcr rnssischen, Lander jenseits des Caucasus von B. Jne-< r 

 Mitgliede mehrer gelehrten Gesellshaften. Leipzig, by C. H. Hartmann. lt*30. 

 Description of the Natural Riches, Extent and Population of the Russian Pro- 

 vinces beyond the Caucasus, by B. Jaeger, Member of several Learned Socie- 

 ties. Leipzig, ISnn 



