No. 7.] DAWSON — LOCUST INVASION OF 1876. 411 



NOTES ON THE LOCUST IN THE NORTH-WEST 



IN 1876. 



By George M. Dawson, D.S., Assoc. K. S. M., F.G.S. 



Having collected and published in the Naturalist, notes bearing 

 on the appearance and movements of the locust, or devastating 

 grasshopper, in Manitoba and the North-west Territory in 1874 

 and 1875 ; I propose briefly to put on record information ob- 

 tained for 1876. The insect having drawn upon itself the atten- 

 tion of the western farmer, has at last become the subject of 

 investigation by a Scientific Commission appointed last year by 

 the Government of the United States. "With the intelligent co- 

 operation of the farmer, we are likely soon to know all that can 

 be known about the locust, and what may be done to prevent its 

 destructive increase. 



• Absence on the West Coast, and the pressure of other business, 

 with the long time necessarily occupied in communicating with 

 some parts of the far west, have prevented the earlier appearance 

 of these notes. 



Fortunately for the Province of Manitoba and the North- 

 west Territory, the history of the movements of the locust 

 within their limits in 1876 is not a long one. In 1875, as 

 chronicled in the Naturalist, the locust hatched abundantly in 

 Manitoba and its vicinity, and also in considerable numbers 

 in the country near the foot of the Rocky Mountains. The 

 swarms of Manitoba flew southward, while a great invasion of 

 winged swarms from the south, occurred in the region west 

 of Manitoba, where eggs were extensively deposited. From these 

 eggs, with those which any small colonies of locusts remaining as 

 residents in the country may have deposited, the swarms of 1876 

 were produced. No invasion of the region north of the 49th par- 

 allel from the south, occurred, except in the extreme west, where 

 at Fort Walsh, flights are reported as arriving from Montana in 

 the middle of July. 



Over the greater part of the area defined northward by the 

 52nd parallel, and extending from the Rocky Mountains east- 

 ward to the 100th meridian, important hatching grounds were 



Vol. VIII. aa No. 7. 



