308 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1952 



to consist entirely of grasshoppers, but they usually comprise dirt and 

 various morainic debris in addition to grasshoppers. At the bottom 

 of the face of the glacier, which overhangs a small lake, the grass- 

 hoppers are still mixed with the dirt and other debris where melting 

 occurs. Lovering (1929, p. 41, pi. 13), in an important paper on 

 the geology of the area, states that birds and fish "feed eagerly" upon 

 the bodies of the grasshoppers as the ice releases them. He may have 

 had reference to fish located some distance downstream, where some 

 of the better-preserved grasshoppers have been washed during pe- 

 riods of pronounced melting, since it is not clear whether fish occur 

 in the pond at the immediate foot of the glacier. Dr. J. K. Parker, 

 of Bozeman, Mont., a lifelong observer of grasshoppers, has told me 

 of finding large quantities of the badly decomposed and broken 

 grasshoppers in 1931. "As we approached the Glacier," he says. 

 "the wind was blowing toward us and at a distance of about one- 

 fourth mile we began to notice the odor of something rotten. When 

 we reached the Glacier we found that grasshoppers had been uncov- 

 ered by melting ice and had washed down and over the face of the 

 Glacier where they were in piles 2 to 4 feet deep and smelling to high 

 heavens." 



SOURCE OF THE GRASSHOPPERS 



How do the grasshoppers become preserved in the ice, and why 

 are they here when most glaciers have no such inclusions in quantity ? 

 Dr. Parker has explained to me the circumstances which he feels may 

 be responsible for these conspicuous deposits in Grasshopper Glacier. 

 The ice field of the glacier is in a saddle between high peaks, and 

 there is considerable air movement, the air being funneled between 

 the peaks and over the glacier. Insects of many kinds settle upon 

 the glacier and the surrounding snow fields, some doubtless being 

 carried by air currents until they become chilled above the glacier 

 and settle. Dr. Parker has added : 



Another way in which large numbers of grasshoppers could have accumu- 

 lated on the glacier would be as a result of a sudden change of weather condi- 

 tions while a swarm of grasshoppers was passing over the Glacier even though 

 it was too high to be affected by the cold air immediately above it. We know 

 that swarms of grasshoppers remain in flight only while the air is warm. 

 Sudden changes to lower temperatures, or cloudiness, often cause them to close 

 their wings and plummet to the ground in great numbers. Storms are frequent 

 in the high mountains, and on Grasshopper Glacier in July I have seen warm 

 bright sunny weather followed within an hour by snow and near freezing tem- 

 peratures. Had a swarm of grasshoppers been flying over the Glacier at that 

 time it would have descended upon it and have been embedded in the snow 

 and ice. I believe the successive large accumulations came about in this manner. 



