106 LOCUSTID.B — LOCUSTS. 



they move with such force, or rather precipitation, that the 

 air trembles to such a degree as to shake the leaves upon 

 the trees, and they darkened the sky in such a manner, that 

 when they passed over us I could not see my people at 

 twenty feet distance."^ This flight was four hours in pass- 

 ing over the Red Tower. The guards here attempted to 

 stop them, by firing cannon at them ; and where, indeed, 

 the balls and shot swept through the swarm, they gave way 

 and divided ; but, having filled up their ranks in a moment, 

 they proceeded on their journey.'^ In an item dated Her- 

 manstadt, July 24, 1148, it is stated that on the day before, 

 a hussar, coming from the plague committee, saw such a 

 host of these insects near Szanda, that they covered the 

 country for a mile round, and were so thick, that he was 

 obliged to dismount from his horse, and halt for three hours, 

 until the inhabitants of the district, coming with all sorts of 

 instruments, beat about and forced with loud cries these 

 pests to quit the spot.'^ In another item, dated Warsaw, 

 August 15, 1748, it is stated that a certain prince sent out 

 soldiers against the Locusts, who fired upon them not only 

 with small arms, but with cannons. Thej succeeded in di- 

 viding the Locusts, but unluckily with the noise frightened 

 away the storks and cranes which daily consume many of 

 these insects.* Some stragglers from these swarms which 

 so desolated Wallachia, Moldavia, Transylvania, Hungary, 

 and Poland, in the years 1747 and '48, made their way into 

 England, where they caused some alarm. ^ During this grand 

 invasion of Europe, they even crossed the Baltic, and visited 

 Sweden in 1749. Charles the Twelfth, in Bessarabia, im- 

 agined himself, it is said, assailed by a hurricane, mingled 

 with tremendous hail, when a cloud of these insects suddenly 

 falling, and covering both men and horses, arrested his entire 

 army in its march. *^ 



During the devastations committed by the Locusts in 

 Spain in 1754, '55, '56, and '57, a body of them entered the 



1 Phil. Trans., vol. xlvi., and Gent. Mag., xvii. 435. 2 /^/^/^ 



3 Ins. (Murray, 1838), ii. 190. 



^ Ibid., 191. Dr. Shaw says, Governors of particular provinces 

 of the East oftentimes command a certain number of the military 

 to take the field against armies of Locusts, with a train of artil- 

 lery. — Zool., vi. 131, note. 



^ Phil. Trans., vol. xlvi. 



6 Cuv. An. King. — Ins., ii. 211. 



i 



