CH. XII.] THE LOCUST, ETC. 187 



markets. The females are considered by the epi- 

 cures to be more delicate and more edible than the 

 males, owing to the ovaries. An immense army of 

 another species devastated the Mahratta country. 

 The column extended five hundred miles, and was 

 so compact, when on the wing, that, like an eclipse, 

 it completely hid the sun, so that no shadow was 

 cast by any object, and some lofty tombs two hun- 

 dred yards distant were rendered quite invisible. 

 To add to the horror of the scene, they were not 

 the Locusta migratoria, but a red species, so that 

 after they had devoured every thing and clustered 

 on the branches, the trees appeared to be dripping 

 with gore. 



The South African locust, Mr. Barrow tells us, 

 might be said to cover a surface of the ground for 

 the space of two thousand square miles. So nu- 

 merous were they, that they effectually hid a large 

 river, and those which lay on the surface were so 

 thick that the water was rendered invisible by them. 

 When these insects attack a cornfield, they mount 

 on the top and pick out the grain before they de- 

 vour the leaf or stem. And when the larvae, which 

 are still more voracious than the parent insect, are 

 on the march, it is impossible to make them turn 

 out of their way, which is usually that of the wind. 

 At sunset the troop halts and divides into separate 

 groups, each occupying in bee-like clusters the 

 neighbouring eminences for the night. One of the 

 modes of destroying these destructive creatures is 

 now practised by the colonists, who turn a large 

 flock of sheep among them, and thus secure an 

 immense number of them being trodden to death. 

 In a former visitation of this plague, all the full- 

 grown insects were blown into the sea by a hurri- 

 cane, drowned, and cast up again in such quantities 

 as to form a bank more than a yard in height and 

 nearly fifty miles long. The stench arising from 

 their carcasses was sensible in Sneeuwberg, a 



