No. 7.] DAWSON — LOCUST INVASION OP 1876. 413 



the areas designated as frequently visited, and permanent breeding 

 grounds are made, together, to cover a breadth of about twenty 

 degrees of longitude in the north, and to run beyond the 60th par- 

 allel of north latitude. The range of the locust is really limited to 

 the north by the southern margin of the forest-clad country, and 

 may be roughly defined by a line nearly as follows : — From the in- 

 tersection of the 96th meridian and 49th parallel of latitude, to 

 the south end of Lake Winnipeg, thence to Manitoba Lake, and 

 following this lake and Winnipegosis Lake ; from the north end of 

 the latter westward to the Forks of the Saskatchewan, and thence 

 nearly following the course of the Saskatchewan till the wooded 

 country at the base of the Rocky Mountains is attained. It is 

 not meant to affirm that single specimens of Caloptenus spretus 

 may not be obtained beyond this limit, or even that^small colonies 

 may not exist from time to time ; but the edge of the northern 

 forest, with its climatic accompaniments, seems to constitute an 

 absolute barrier to the destructive abundance of the insect. Fur- 

 ther north, in the Peace River country, where prairies and tracts 

 of lightly wooded land are extensive, I cannot learn, — though 

 careful enquiry has been made on the subject, — that the locust 

 swarms have ever been seen. At nearly all the Hudson Bay 

 Company's posts more or less cultivation is carried on, and some 

 record would have been kept of the appearance of the locust, had 

 it occurred. Mr. S. D. Mulkins, of Battleford, to whom I wrote 

 on this subject, says : — " From all the information I can collect, 

 I cannot find that the grasshopper has ever visited any of the 

 Hudson Bay Company's posts north of latitude 53° I have never 

 heard that they have ever penetrated to the Peace River country. 

 To do so they would have to cross a wide belt of pine forest. 

 Whether it is the scarcity of food in such places, or that there is 

 something in the air that they do not like, the met is, that they 

 never in this country, to my knowledge, or that I can find out, 

 have penetrated the wooded region. At Ft. a la Corne, Prince 

 Albert Mission, Turtle Lake, Lac la Biche, Lac la Nun and Lac 

 Ste. Anne, they have never been seen ; and these places are all 

 on the verge of the great forest, or just within its southern limit." 

 The immunity of the Peace River plains from the locust plague, 

 constitutes a point of great importance in their favour, and may 

 eventually render them, area for area, of considerably greater 

 value than those of some parts of the Saskatchewan — a circum- 

 stance to be taken into consideration in planning a railway route. 



