114 EXTRACTS. 



tlie Freo Sttito from the west, of the Transvaal from the 

 3outli-west. All of the routes, or flioht lines, lead to the 

 southern Kalahari or to those parts where the Kalahari may 

 bo said to mer^^e into the Great Karroo. 



Whilst not attemptino- to deny that, under eertain 

 peculiarly favourable conditions, the interior of the Kalahari 

 may at long intervals be the storm centre for locusts, I feel 

 that it is rather upon the periphery of this region that 

 locusts actually increase to great numbers and then overrun 

 the countries where they do the maximum amount of damage 

 but where they do not become permanently established. The 

 actual point may be anywhere within the less arid parts, and 

 this year it happens to have been the south-western portion 

 of the Oranoe Free State. 



It will be obvious that we have but to re-arrange our stage 

 effects to reproduce one of those great invasions of the past 

 out of current events. Antedate this outbreak to the days, 

 not so very far distant, when locust visitations were received 

 with no grave concern, when railways and telegraphs did 

 not form a network over the country ; allow Nature to take 

 its course, and history would have repeated itself. To-day 

 thinos are far different from what thev were even thirty 

 years ago, and it seems to be unlikely that South Africa will 

 ever again be overrun by devastating swarms of winged 

 locusts without due warning and without there being some 

 opportunity afforded to stem the tide. In short, by efficiency 

 — that is by preparedness and by keeping the whole of the 

 suspected area under watchful observation, — there is much 

 promise that the vast invasions of the past will be but 

 matters of the past. {Claude Fuller, Fanners' ]VeekI^, 

 X., No. 254, 19th Jan. llUt'), Bloemfontein, S.A.) 



A Method of Freserrint; the Colours of Locusts and Grass- 

 hoppers. — The Entomologist of the (V'>lombo Museum, after 

 trying various chemicals such as alcohol, formalin, glycerine, 

 benzine, etc., found calcium carbide the most satisfiictory. 



The insect to be treated should be cut along the under- 

 side of the body and all the inside scraped out. It should 

 then be placed in an air-tight tin containing calcium carbide 



