OF AMERICA. 203 



The grasshoppers made their appearance again in I806 in Oregon, 

 Utah, and California, and in Texas, near Austin, and westward, 

 but in such diminished numbers as not to do extensive harm, ex- 

 cept in particular localities. But it seems, from the periodical press, 

 that in the upper Mississippi (Minnesota, &c.) they committed great 

 injury in the fall of that year, as the following extract will show : 

 "At Little Falls (says the St. Anthony Express) they destroyed corn, 

 oats, wheat, and every kind of grain which came in their way. At 

 Elk river they appeared in a perfect cloud, and lighting upon a corn- 

 field of twenty acres destroyed the whole crop in a short space of 

 time. At Crow Wing, on the farm of Isaac Moulton, they destroyed 

 five hundred bushels of oats." 



Their ravages extended along the first central mesas or steppes, 

 bordering eastward the Eocky mountains, covering the dry soils of 

 Texas, and down into the south of Mexico. In the vicinity of Cordova, 

 in the State of Vera Cruz, the people made "a regular campaign 

 against them, and succeeded in destroying one hundred and ninety- 

 two arrobas, computed as numbering four hundred millions of grass- 

 hoppers," In the State of Guerrero they also did great injury, par- 

 ticularly witliin the districts around Acapulco. 



It would seem that the Locusta makes its destructive appearance 

 within the boundaries of the United States Territories, west of the 

 Mississippi, in some portion or other nearly every year. The follow- 

 ing extract from a correspondent of the New York Tribune, dated 

 Fort Kearny, August 31, 1857, and who was in the expedition of 

 Colonel Sumner against the Cheyenne Indians of the upper branches 

 of the Missouri, shows the efi'ect of the reappearance of this plague in 

 a strong light : 



"The grass along our route has been short and scanty, although 

 refreshed by the recent rains. It is injured by myriads of grass- 

 hoppers, some of which are monstrous in size. I have noticed several 

 between three and four inches, and many nearly three inches long. 

 Last Friday a swarm passed over the fort which darkened the sun so 

 as to render it possible to gaze at it with the naked eye. AVe saw 

 this swarm at a distance of ten or twelve miles, at which it resembled 

 a cloud of smoke." 



Every western man remembers the visitation of grasshoppers 

 in 1855 and 1856 in Kansas, Nebraska, and Minnesota Territories, 

 •which caused such injury to the crops of the Indians. In the travels 

 of Jonathan Carver, in the northwest parts of the Mississippi and 

 Lake countries, published in 1779, page 494, the following mention 

 is made of the locust or grasshopper: "I must not omit to mention 

 that the locust is a septennial insect, as they are only seen, a small 

 number of stragglers excepted, every seven years, when they infest 

 these parts and the interior colonies in large swarms and do a great 

 deal of mischief. The years when they thus arrive are denominated 

 the locust years." 



Since 1823 the grasshoppers have several times ravaged the 

 fields and gardens of the Franciscan missions of Upper California. 

 About the year 1827 or 1828 they ate up nearly all the growing 

 crops, and occasioned a great scarcity of wholesome food. At the 



