200 GRASSHOPPERS AND LOCUSTS 



far as it contributes to happiness, whether bodily or mental ; and even 

 if the tendency to health, which is given by the regular habits, tem- 

 perance and industry, without which no one can be an entomologist, 

 are to be considered of no value, still the constant interest without 

 anxiety or disappointment, the gentle exertion without overstraining 

 the mind, and the contemplation of the universal beneficence of the 

 Creator even towards the smallest of his creatures, can hardly fail to 

 bring to the mind a peaceful happiness which none but a philosopher 

 can appreciate, and even he cannot describe. If, indeed, he could, in- 

 stead of the few who devote themselves to the study and observation 

 of animated nature, there would be scarcely any who would not be- 

 come naturalists." 



Let it not, however, be supposed that the way to philosophic heights 

 is smooth and easy, and that the book of Nature can be read without 

 first acquiring the alphabet in which it is written. But whilst its 

 pages invite all to investigation, even those who run the course of a 

 busy life, its records can be fully deciphered only, perhaps, by those 

 few chosen spirits whom she has selected as her interpreters, who pass 

 through a long and laborious pupilage, who are content to labor with- 

 out other hope of reward than that which knowledge brings, and to 

 sit childlike at her feet, learning to lisp the accents of the language 

 in which she expresses her startling and profound conceptions. And 

 without aspiring to deep acquirements, without seeking to merit the 

 designation of naturalists, we can prepare the way for the advent of 

 this chosen spirit in the field of entomology in America, and feel our- 

 selves elevated in mind and benefitted in body by the devotion of 

 leisure time to intelligent and systematic observation of even those 

 beings which may have been heretofore considered unworthy of notice, 

 but which at least teach us that " there's never a leaf or a blade too 

 mean to be some happy creatures palace." It will be a most accept- 

 able labor to the intelligent everywhere, and in the end must convince 

 the most practical minded that " Whatever it has been worth God's 

 while to create, it must be worth man's while to study." 



AN ACCOUNT OF THE GRASSHOPPERS AND LOCUSTS OF AMERICA, CON- 

 DENSED FROM AN ARTICLE WRIITEN AND FURNISHED BY ALEXANDER 

 S. TAYLOR, ESQ , OF MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA. 



From the periodical press we learn that, up to the 11th of Octo- 

 ber, 1855, and commencing about the middle of May, these insects 

 extended themselves over a space of the earth's surface much greater 

 than has ever before been noted. They covered the entire Territories 

 of Washington and Oregon, and every valley of the State of Cali- 

 fornia, ranging from the Pacific ocean to the eastern base of the Sierra 

 Nevada ; the entire Territories of Utah and New Mexico ; the immense 

 grassy prairies lying on the eastern slopes of the Kocky Mountains ; 

 the dry mountain valleys of the republic of Mexico, and the countries 



