No. 3.] DAWSON — THE LOCUST INVASION. 125 



and on the 18th and 19th at St. Laurent, on the eastern shore 

 of Lake Manitoba. On July 11th we find other hordes at 

 Pembina Mountain, on the boundary line, and these in the 

 course of their migration reached West Lynne on the Red River 

 — thirty miles distant on the 15th. 



On July 11th the front of the various swarms would be 

 approximately bounded by a line drawn from Pembina Mountain 

 on the forty-ninth parallel, to Scratching River, thence following 

 the Red River to a point between St. Norbert and Winnipeg, 

 from there probably bending southward through a region for 

 which we have no information, but again turning northward, and 

 striking the Assineboine a few miles west of Poplar Point, and 

 thence running — though no doubt with many flexures — north- 

 north-westward. 



It will be observed that while great swarms of the locusts had 

 thus nearly reached the eastern border of their range, there were 

 still immense numbers just beginning their migration ab^ut 

 the 107th and 110th meridians. These are no doubt the hordes 

 which according to the Hon. Mr. McKay arrived in Manitoba 

 during August. The directions taken by the insects on their 

 departure from the various localities in Manitoba, show much 

 diversity. They often remain some time on the ground, and 

 after depositing their eggs they are weak and their organization 

 is broken. 



The most astonishing fact in connection with the habits of the 

 locust is the fixed determination of the swarms to travel in a 

 certain direction, and the wonderful instinct which leads them 

 to wait for a wind favouriog their intention. The usual direc- 

 tion of migration when swarms fall upon the cultivated lands 

 and settlements, is south-eastward or eastward, and to this there 

 is abundant testimony. There is evidence, however, that the 

 insect occasionally migrates in great bodies in a nearly opposite 

 direction, and in 1S75 it would appear that many swarms, the 

 progeny of those of 1874, have shown a like decided inclination 

 to travel northward, toward the breeding grounds of their parents, 

 whfle yet in their full strength and vigour. It would be a fact 

 surpassing in interest the journeys of birds of passage, if it should 

 be found that the locust requires two generations to complete 

 the normal cycle of its migration. 



The locusts are recorded on one occasion at least (1867, by 

 Prof. Hind) to have reached the shores of the Lake of the 



