RAVAGES OF LOCUSTS. 247 



forwards toward the sea, they let nothing escape 

 them, — they kept their ranks hke men of war; chmb- 

 ing over, as they advanced, every tree or wall that 

 was in their way; nay, they entered into our very 

 houses and bed-chambers, like so many thieves. 

 The inhabitants, to stop their progress, formed 

 trenchers all over their fields and gardens, which they 

 filled with water. Some placed large quantities of 

 heath, stubble, and other combustible matter, in rows, 

 and set them on fire on the approach of the locusts; 

 but this was all to no purpose, for the trenches were 

 quickly filled up, and the fires put out, by immense 

 swarms that succeeded each other. 



' A day or two after one of these hordes was 

 in motion, others were already hatched to march and 

 glean after them. Having lived near a month in this 

 manner, they arrived at their fijll growth, and threw 

 off their nympha-state by casting their outward skin. 

 To prepare themselves for this change, they clung 

 by their hinder feet to some bush, twig, or corner of 

 a stone; and immediately, by using an undulating 

 motion, their heads would first break out, and then 

 the rest of their bodies. The whole transformation 

 was performed in seven or eiglit minutes; after which 

 they lay for a small time in a torpid, and, seemingly, 

 in a languishin^y condition; but as soon as the sun 

 and the air had hardened their wings by drying up the 

 moisture that remained upon them after casting their 

 sloughs, they resumed their former voracity, with an 

 addition of strength and agility. Yet they continued 

 not long in this state before they were entirely disper- 

 sed.'* 



It is diflicult to form an adequate conception of 

 the swarms of locusts which, in 1797, invaded 

 the interior of southern Africa, as recorded by Mr 

 Barrow. In the part of the country where ho was^ 



* Shaw\s 'l^ravels, p. 287. 



