OF AMERICA. 201 



of Lower California and Central America, and also those portions of 

 the State of Texas which resemble, in physical characteristics, Utah 

 and California. The records prove that the locusts extended them- 

 selves, in one year, over a surface comprised within thirty-eight degrees 

 of latitude, and, in the broadest part, eighteen degrees of longitude. 



On several days in June, July, and August, of 1855, the grass- 

 hoppers (or langostas of the Spaniards) were seen in such incredible 

 numbers in the valley of Sacramento, in California ; in the valley 

 of Colima, in Southwest Mexico ; in the valley of the Great Salt Lake ; 

 in Western Texas, and certain valleys of Central America, that they 

 filled the air, like flakes of snow on a winter's day, and attacked 

 everything green or succulent with a voracity and despatch destructive 

 to the hopes of agriculturists. 



To stimulate inquiries founded on original observation of the 

 locust. Col. Warren, editor of the California Farmer, forwarded a 

 short circular note to several periodicals, dated July 2, 1855, in which 

 he states that, "for the last three days, the very air has been so full 

 of them over this city (Sacramento) as to resemble a dense snow 

 storm. Large fields of oats and wheat have suffered in lone and other 

 upper (Sierra Nevada) valleys." 



The Sacramento Union, of the same date, states that the ''most 

 remarkable circumstance we have ever been called on to notice in this 

 locality was the flight of the grasshoppers on Saturday and yester- 

 day. For about three hours in the middle of the day the air, at an 

 elevation of about two hundred feet, was literally thick with them, 

 flying in the direction of Yolo. They could be the more readily per- 

 ceived by looking in the direction of the sun. Great numbers fell 

 upon the streets on Saturday — absolutely taking the city by storm — 

 and yesterday they commenced the wholesale destruction of every- 

 thing green in the gardens of the neighborhood. Their flight, en masse, 

 resembled a thick snow-storm, and their depredations the sweep of a 

 scythe. The prevalence of the scourge is explained by Dr. T. M. 

 Logan as being attributable to the great warmth and dryness of the 

 present season — circumstances favorable to an early development of 

 the eggs of the insect, which is deemed one of the most fruitful in the 

 animal kingdom." 



The Shasta Courier, printed in the northern Sacramento moun- 

 tains, remarks that "on Wednesday last (September 19, 1855,) an 

 immense flight of grasshoppers passed over this place, flying west- 

 ward. The greater portion of them flew very high, and could only 

 be seen by shading the eyes from the sun. They were as thick in the 

 heavens as flakes of snow in a winter storm." 



The Sacramento Valley papers mention that whole orchards, 

 gardens, and vineyards have been consumed by them. Entire fields 

 of young grain, of crops, and vegetables, have been eaten up within 

 the space of a single day, leaving the ground like a wilted, bhxckened 

 desert. In some parts of the valley they annoyed the passengers and 

 horses of the public stages to such an extent as to cause the greatest 

 inconvenience, and appear, in some cases, to have positively endangered 

 human life. 



A gentleman who resided in Colusi coun'y, ia the Sacramento 



