No. 4.] DAWSON — LOCUST INVASION OF 1875. 215 



departed. In the following spring the young locusts began to 

 appear, and before the latter end of May, 1819, the whole 

 country was literally covered with them, and the rising crops of 

 every kind entirely devoured. These in due time left to invade 

 some other region. The opinion of the settlers who were her e 

 at the time was that they flew to the north and were driven by 

 a strong south wind into Lake Winnipeg and drowned in such 

 great numbers that the waves heaped them up, in some parts of 

 the western shore, to a depth of several feet. As soon as these 

 had taken their flight, fresh swarms poured in from the south- 

 west, but found nothing to devour but the stinted natural grasses 

 of the plains, which their predecessors had eaten to the very 

 roots. Notwithstanding the scantiness of their diet, they depo- 

 sited their eggs in great numbers, which the warmth of the fol- 

 lowing spring ushered into life. At the usual time, the latter 

 end of July and first week of August, they disappeared, and 

 from 1820 to 1857 the country was free from the inroads of 

 these formidable destroyers. In 1857 a considerable swarm of 

 locusts visited the settlements on the lower Assiniboine in the 

 latter end of July, but these did not extend in any considerable 

 numbers towards lower Fort Garry. They deposited their eggs 

 over what is now known as Headingly and White Horse Plain 

 parishes, and in the spring of 1858 the young progeny destroyed 

 the crops in the above-mentioned region, say a distance of twelve 

 or fifteen miles. These after they attained their full growth, as 

 usual left the country. In 1864 another invasion took place, 

 great numbers of them fell on each side of the Assiniboine, and 

 extended down to upper Fort Garry. On the 7th of July they 

 flew in great numbers over the lower settlement. They were 

 driven by a fresh breeze from the west, some of them appeared 

 to be at a great height from the earth, the living mass extending 

 downward to the height of a few feet from the surface, numbers 

 of the lowermost falling continually to the ground. The fore- 

 most part of the cloud began to pass over this place at 10 a.m., 

 and they continued flying for some time after 2 p.m., and during 

 the time of their flight they had fallen in such numbers that 

 from twelve to twenty were counted on a square foot of surface. 

 After a short rest, those which had alighted on ploughed lands 

 and on barren spots moved into corn-fields and began feeding 

 on the leaves of the wheat plant, and according to their usual 

 habit cut off the heads of the barley. Here I had an opportu- 



