LOCUSTID^ — LOCUSTS. 113 



According to Lieutenant Warren, whose graphic descrip- 

 tion is here borrowed, these devastating insects of our great 

 western plains are "nearly the same as the Locusts of 

 Egypt; and no one," continues this officer, "who has not 

 traveled on the prairie, and seen for himself, can appre- 

 ciate the magnitude of the swarms. Often they fill the air 

 for many miles in extent, so that an inexperienced eye can 

 scarcely distinguish their appearance from that of a shower 

 of rain or the smoke of a prairie fire. The height of their 

 flight may be somewhat appreciated, as Mr. Evans saw them 

 above his head, as far as their size would render them visi- 

 ble, while standing on the top of a peak of the Rocky Mount- 

 ains 8500 feet above the plain, and an elevation of 14,500 

 above that of the sea, in the region where the snow lies all 

 the year. To a person standing in one of the swarms as 

 they pass over and around him, the air becomes sensibly 

 darkened, and the sound produced by their wings resembles 

 that of the passage of a train of cars on a railroad, when 

 standing two or three hundred yards from the track. The 

 Mormon settlements have suffered more from the ravages of 

 these insects than probably all other causes combined. They 

 destroyed nearly all the vegetables cultivated last year at Fort 

 Randall, and extended their ravages east as far as lowa."^ 



The Mormons, in their simple and picturesque descrip- 

 tions, say that these insects ("Crickets" — (Edvpoda coral- 

 lipes, Haldemars) are the produce of " a cross between the 

 Spider and the Buifalo.'" 



In Egypt, in 1843, the popular idea was that the hordes 

 of Locusts, which were then ravaging the laud, were sent by 

 the comet observed about that time for twelve days in the 

 southwest.^ 



Pliny, in the words of his translator, Holland, says : 

 "Many a time have the Locusts been knowne to take their 

 fliglit out of Afifricke, and with whole armies to infest Italic : 

 many a time have the people of Rome, fearing a great fam- 

 ine and scarcity toward, beene forced to have recourse unto 

 Sybil's bookes for remedie, and to avert the ire of the gods. 



' Quot. by Burton, City of the Saints, p. 86. Cf. Long's Exped., ii. 

 31. 



2 Remy and Brenchley's Voy. to G. S. Lake City, i. 440, note; 

 Burton's City of the Saints, p. 345. 



3 Lepsius, Disc, in Egypt, p. 50. 



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