OF AMERICA. 211 



physical characteristic to that of the territories within the boundaries 

 of Upper and Lower California prior to the American occupation : 



" Shortly before arriving at the village and river of Luxan, we 

 observed, to the south, a ragged cloud of a dark reddish brown color. 

 At first we thought it was caused by some great fire on the neighbor- 

 ing plains, but we soon found that it was a swarm of locusts. They 

 were flying northward, and with the aid of a light breeze they over- 

 took us at the rate of ten or fifteen miles an hour. The main body 

 filled the air from a height of twenty feet to that, as it appeared, of 

 two or three thousand feet above the ground. The sound of their 

 wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle; 

 or rather, as I should say, like a strong breeze passing through a 

 ship's rigging. The sky, seen through the advanced guard, appeared 

 like a mezzotinto engraving; but the main body was impervious to 

 sight. They were not, however, so thick together but that they could 

 escape a stick waved backward and forward. When they alighted, 

 they were more numerous than the leaves in the field, and the surface 

 became reddish instead of green. The swarm having once alighted, 

 the individuals flew from side to side in all directions. Locusts are 

 not an uncommon pest in this country. Already, during this season, 

 several smaller swarms had come up from the south^ where, apparently, 

 as in all other parts of the world, they are bred in the deserts. The 

 poor cottagers in vain attempted, by lighting fires, by shouts, and by 

 waving branches, to arrest the attack. This species of locust closely 

 resembles, antl perhaps is identical, witli the Gryllus inigratorius of 

 Syria and Palestine." 



It is a little singular that though the ravages of the grasshop- 

 pers have been noticed by all the presses of California, Utah, Oregon, 

 and Washington, and particularly by those of the Sacramento and 

 Utah valleys, not one of them has given any detailed description of the 

 difierent species of locusta infesting those districts of country ; nor 

 have any of our naturalists or observing writers made more than a 

 passing notice of the animal whose history hereafter will leave the 

 most melancholy marks of its devastation on the means of subsistence 

 of the people who may fill up these territories. If they have been 

 recorded in the annals of Africa, Asia, and Europe, for four thousand 

 years, and have been chronicled in the histories of the Californias for 

 one hundred years, we may be sure that there is nothing to prevent 

 their periodical devastating visits within the boundaries of the North 

 Pacific slope for four thousand years more. 



The habits of this insect ought to be diligently observed by the 

 cultivators of the soil in our State. It requires from the State 

 authorities the employment of the best naturalists to study and com- 

 pile for public use the most searching investigation into the birth, 

 multiplication, and best methods of checking the increase of this ter- 

 ribly devouring and consuming pestilence. 



The "California Farmer" of July 5, 1855, says: "The following 

 facts can be relied upon, having been received from such sources as 

 leave no question of their correctness: Wherever the floods covered 

 the soil, and remained a little time, no grasshoppers appear; they 

 rarely or never are found in shaded grounds or damp and wet locali- 



