LOCUSTS. 403 



vance from morning to evening witliont halting, frequently 

 at the rate of a hundred fathoms and upwards in the course 

 of a day. Although they prefer marching along high 

 roads, footpaths, or open tracts, yet, when their progress 

 is opposed by bushes, hedges, and ditches, they penetrate 

 through them ; their way can only be impeded by the 

 waters of brooks or canals, as they are apparently terrified 

 at every kind of moisture. Often, however, they endeavour 

 to gain the opposite bank, with the aid of overhanging 

 boughs ; and, if the stalks of plants or shrubs be laid across 

 the water, they pass in close columns over these temporarj^ 

 bridges, on which they even seem to rest, and enjoy the 

 refreshing coolness. Towards sunset, the whole swarm • 

 gradually collect in parties, and creep up the plants, or 

 encamp on slight eminences. On cold, cloudy, or rain}^ 

 days, they do not travel. As soon as they acquire wings, 

 they progressively disperse, but still fly about in large 

 swarms."* 



When Captains Irby and Mangles were travelling round 

 the southern extremity of the Dead Sea, in the end of May, 

 they had an opportunity of observing these insect depre- 

 dators. " In the morning," say they, " we quitted Shobek. 

 On our way we passed a swarm of locusts that were resting 

 themselves in a gully : they were in sufficient numbers to 

 alter apparently the colour of the rock on which they had 

 alighted, and to make a sort of crackling noise while eating, 

 which we heard before we reached them. Volney compares 

 it to the foraging of an army. Our conductors told us they 

 were on their way to Gaza, and that they pass almost 



annually ."t 



Even our own island has been alarmed by the appearance 

 of locusts, a considerable number having visited us in 1748 ; 

 but they happily perished without propagating. Other 

 parts of Europe have not been so fortunate. In 1650 a 

 cloud of locusts were seen to enter Eussia in three different 

 places ; and they afterwards spread themselves over Poland 

 and Lithuania in such astonishing multitudes, that the air 



* Travels in Kiissia, vol. ii. pp. 422-6. 



t Irby and Mangles' Travels in Egypt and Syria, p. 443. 



