32 



1834, they " destroyed all the crops of the rancheros and missions, with the exception of the 

 wheat." In 1838, the field crops and gardens were again nearly destroyed. In 1846, there 

 was another serious visitation, which extended over some of what are now termed the Western 

 States, as well as California. In 18.^)5, to pass over lesser visitations, there came one of the 

 most terrible of all the recorded plagues of Locusts in Calirornia. As related by Mr. Taylor, 

 of Monterey, (Smith.sonian lleport,.1858), between the middle of May and October, 1855, 

 " these insects extended themselves over a space of the earth's ■•-urface, much greater than hag 

 ever before been noted. They covered the entire Territories of Washington and Oregon, and 

 every valley of the State of California, ranging frnm the Pacific Ocean to the eastern base of 

 the Sierra Nevada ; the entire Territories of Utah and New Mexico ; the immense grassy 

 prairies lying on the eastern slopes of the Kocky Mountains ; the dry mountajn valleys of 

 the Republic of Mexico, and the countries of Lower California and Central America, and also 

 those portions of Texas which resemble, in physical characteristics, Utah and California. The 

 records prove that the locusts extended themselves, in one year, over a surface comprised within 

 thirty-eight degrees of latitude, and in the broadest part, eighteen degrees of longitude." The 

 Sacramento newspapers of that year were filled with details of the plague ; most accounts 

 compared the swarms, when in flight, to dense snow-storms ; they consumed everything before 

 them — the foliage of trees, orchards, gardens, vineyards, fields of young grain, of crops and 

 vegetables — everything was eaten up in a particular locality in a single day, leaving the ground 

 a withered, blackened desert. That summer ol 1855, was observed to be the hottest and 

 driest that had been known for ten years." 



During the next two years, 1856-7, the plague was almost entirely confined to the 

 region lying east of the Eocky Mountains, and extending in places as far vls the Missis- 

 sippi River ; throughout the States of Minnesota, Nebraska and Kansas, the locusts were es- 

 pecially destructive. Ten years later, in the summer of 1 86G, another noteworthy visitation 

 took place throughout the same region. A correspondent of a Rock Island, 111., paper (.see 

 Practical Entomologist, vol. ii., page 3), thus describes the plague in Nebraska : " The last day 

 of August, near the middle of the afternoon, quite a number of grasshoppers were seen alight- 

 ing, and that number rapidly increased till a little before sunset. The next morning they 

 appeared much thicker, but were only so from having crawled more into the open air to 

 sun themselves. About nine o'clock they began to come thicker and faster from a northerly 

 directinn, swarming in the air by myriads, and making a roar like suppressed distant thun- 

 der. By looking up to the sun they could be seen as high as the eye could discover an 

 object so small, in appearance like a heavy snow storm. Each grasshopper very much like a 

 very large flake, save that it passed by instead of fiilling. The number was beyond imagination, 

 the air was literally full of them and continued so till late in the afternoon, countless millions 

 passed on leaving other countless millions covering the earth and devouring the vegetation." 

 Another writer from Kansas states that " Yesterday, September 10th, the locusts made their 

 appearance here, and are devouring everything green. They almost darken the sun in their 

 flight. I put in 65 acres of wheat in the last week of August, which looked fine, but it has 

 nearly all disappeared ; by to-morrow niaht there will not be a spear left. Early sown wheat 

 will be totally destroyed." From the description given by another writer in Kansas, we may 

 quote the following graphic account : — " There is something weird and unearthly in their 

 appearance, as in vast hosts tliey scale walls, housetops and fences, clambering over each 

 other with a creaking, clashing noise. Sometimes they march in even regular lines, like hosts 

 of pigmy cavalry, but generally they rush over the ground in confused swarms. At times they 

 rise high in the air and circle round like gnats in the sunshine. At such times, I think, they 

 are caught by currents of our prevailing westerly winds and are thus distributed over vast 

 tracts of country." The foi'cgoing extracts will give our readers some little idea of the mode 

 of appearance and the destructive powers of the locusts in the west. We might fill pages, a 

 volume indeed, with similar accounts. 



The next year 1867, and to some extent also in 1868 the locusts reappeared through- 

 out the same region, and extended further to the eastward as well as westward. They 

 proved more or less destructive in Western and Central Iowa, and in North Western Mis- 

 souri, as well as almost all over Nebra.ska, Kansas, Texas and Utah. They have never, so far 

 as we have been able to ascertain, passed to the eastward of the Mississijipi River. 



In 1869 and 1870, the rav.iges of the locusts seem to have been confined on this side of 

 the Rocky Mountains, to portions of Nebraska, Colorado and Utah. 



