148 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



THE ROCKY iMOUNTAIN LOCUSTS. 



THEIR DESTRUCTIVE POWER-HOW THEY EAT, AND BREED, AND BRING RUIN. 



[Pi-ejjared especially for the Eeeord-Union, by J. G. Lemmon.] 



The locust, of all insects, and in fact, of all living creatures, is most 

 notorious for its injury to man. The immense numbers that, unher- 

 alded, swarm out of certain high, arid countries, and swoop down 

 upon whole provinces, and the amount of destruction accomplished, 

 both to property and life, have caused the locust to be regarded as- 

 next to floods and drouths in calamitous importance. So mysterious 

 were their movements and so terrible their ravages in ancient times, 

 that it is not strange that locust invasions were ascribed directly to the 

 anger of an offended Deity, who thus afflicted his creatures with 

 plagues. In those days knowledge was often used for as base pur- 

 poses as at present, and priests making a study of the recurrence of 

 these plagues won for themselves honors and power by predicting 

 dire calamities that humbled kings in profound awe. The most 

 accurate and graphic description of the appearance and ravages of 

 locusts is contained in one of the oldest of sacred writings. Nothing 

 can surpass the following from Joel, chap, ii : 



A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness as of the morn- 

 ing spread upon the mountains ; a great people and a strong ; there hath not been ever the like,, 

 neither shall be. "-■■" *" * The appearance of them is as tlie appearance of horses, and as- 

 horsemen so shall they run ; like the noi«e of chariots on the tops of the mountains shall they 

 leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble; as a strong people set in battle 

 array. * -■■" * They shall run like mighty men : they shall climb the wall like men of 

 war; they shall march every one on his ways; they shall not break their ranks. * ® * 

 They shall run to and fro in the city ; they shall climb upon the houses; they shall enter into 

 the windows like a. thief. ■■• •■• "•■•■ Before their face the people shall be much pained ; all 

 faces shall gather blackness. * * ® A fire devoureth before them, and behind them a- 

 flame burneth; the land' is a Garden of Eden before them, behind them a desolate wilderness^ 

 Yea, and nothing shall escape them. 



Earlier, Moses described four kinds of locusts, and the Hebrews 

 corroborate the accounts. Ororious, an Egyptian, writing 200 years 

 before the Christian era, states that monstrous swarms invaded North 

 Africa; the wind blew them into the sea, and the bodies washing 

 ashore "stank more than the corpses of a hundred thousand men." 

 St. Augustine describes a locust plague in Masinissa that resulted in 

 famine and pestilence, which destroyed 800,000 people. In the year 

 593 locusts appeared in such vast numbers as to cause famine in 

 many countries around the Mediterranean. In 852 immense swarms 

 ravaged the West, destroying all vegetables, as also eating the bark 

 of trees and the thatch of houses. In 1478 Italy was invaded, aiid 

 30,000 people died of famine. Records since 1333 show that all 

 Europe, from Poland and Germany southward, has been frequently 

 invaded. Arabia, Syria, Egypt, and all the Barbary States have suf- 

 fered frequent terrible invasions. In the East, Persia, India, and 

 China have records of locust ravages as occurring 173 times in a 

 lapse of less than 2,000 years. Owing to the dense population of the 



