414 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viii. 



In the following paragraphs, is given a brief digest of the more 

 important facts bearing on the swarms of 1876 in the North- 

 west, obtained in answer to circulars and by correspondence 

 With the exception of the few notes placed last, the information 

 from Manitoba is purely negative. 



Mr. C. Mair has favoured me with the following note : — " In 

 going to the Saskatchewan, last summer, I met the first hordes 

 about the 26th of July, on the ground this side of the Little 

 Saskatchewan. They were generally facing eastward, and seemed 

 ready for flight. A few days afterwards, we met great flights of 

 the insects, the air appearing to glisten with their motion. I felt 

 no doubt whatever that their destination was Manitoba ; but, as 

 it afterwards appeared, they sheered off southwards before enter- 

 ing the Province, and did great damage in the States and Terri- 

 tories adjoining our boundary. From all I can learn at Carleton, 

 etc., no eggs have been laid in our territory along the North 

 Saskatchewan, and unless they come from the south, we shall be 

 free from them this year." 



Mr. A. L. Russell, of the Special Survey, sends the following 

 notes : On June 19th, saw a few hoppers just out of the egg, a little 

 west of Winnipeg. On July 16th, they were drifting past Fort 

 Ellice, in clouds, to the south-eastward. At a place about forty 

 miles north-west of Ellice, they were very numerous on August 

 4th, 5th, and 11th, flying north-westward on the 4th, south-east- 

 ward on the 5th and 11th. In this region of country they were 

 to be seen almost daily from July 6th to August 10th. About a 

 third of them were infected with parasites. 



Mr. W. F. King writes, with regard to Battleford, that this 

 place has been known to white men only since 1874, and that 

 grasshoppers have not been seen there since. Like Prince Albert, 

 it is protected by a belt of timber. July 29th, passed through a 

 tract of a mile or so in width of unwinged grasshoppers, near Stony 

 Creek (ten miles east of Little Saskatchewan River). None on 

 the Little Saskatchewan, and only a few on the way thence to 

 Fort Ellice. Very plentiful at Ellice in July, particularly about 

 the 20th. Went away about the 25th. No grasshoppers seen 

 on the way from Ellice to Battleford in August, though abundant 

 in this region of country during July. Very abundant towards 

 the foot of the Rocky Mountains and in the whole upper part of 



