RAVAGES OF LOCUSTS. 247 



forwards toward the sea, they let nothing escape 

 them, — they kept their ranks like men of war ; climb- 

 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 trenches 

 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 tw^o 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 full 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 eight minutes ; after which 

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

 in a languishing 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 en- 

 tirely dispersed."* 



It is difficult to form an adequate conception of 

 the swarms of locusts which, in 1797, invaded the 

 interior of Southern Africa, as recorded by Mr. Bar- 

 row. In the part of the country where he was, the 

 * Shaw's Travels, p. 287. 



