No. 6.] RILEY — ROCKY MOUNTAIN LOCUST. 371 



insect in Minnesota, made by Mr. Allen Whitman, it was also 

 very obvious that those portions of that State which had been 

 most thickly supplied with eggs in 1875, and most injured by 

 the young insects in 1876, were the freest from eggs laid by the 

 late swarms of the latter year, notwithstanding counties all 

 around them were thickly supplied. I was at first inclined to 

 look upon these facts as singular coincidences only ; but instances 

 have multiplied. A remarkable one has been furnished me by 

 Gov. A. Morris, of the northwest territory. You are well aware 

 that in 1875 the locusts hatched out in immense numbers and 

 utterly destroyed the crops in the province of Manitoba. Now, 

 in 1876 they were very numerous over all the third prairie 

 steppe of British America, and largely went to make up the 

 autumn swarms that came into our own country a year ago. 

 Governor Morris started late in July of 1876 from Winnipeg 

 northwest to make a treaty with certain Indians, and during the 

 first five or six days of August he encountered innummerable 

 locust swarms all the way from the forks of the two main trails 

 to Fort Ellice. The wind was blowing strong from the west all 

 the time, — just the very direction to carry the insects straight 

 over into Manitoba. The Governor watched their movements 

 with the greatest anxiety, fearing that the province would again 

 be devastated as it had been the previous year. Yet during all 

 the time he was passing through the immense swarms, they bore 

 doggedly to the south and southeast, either tacking against the 

 wind or keeping to the ground when unable to do so. Nothing 

 was more remarkable than the manner in which they persisted 

 in refusing to be carried into Manitoba. A few were blown over, 

 but did not alight, and the province seemed miraculously de- 

 livered. Mr. Whitman tells me, again, that in settling the 

 present year the insects avoided those counties in Minnesota in 

 which they had hatched most numerously and done greatest 

 injury, but selected such as had not suffered for some years past. 

 It is evident that there is more than mere coincidence in these 

 occurrences, and I may say that upon looking more deeply into 

 the matter I cannot find a single instance where eggs have been 

 laid thickly for two successive years iu any invaded country. 

 This is a most important fact. During a season of great devas- 

 tation there is a natural tendency among the more pious portion 

 of the community to beseech the Almighty, by prayer, fasting, 

 and humiliation, for deliverance. How greatly their faith must 



