32 



1834, they "destroyed all the cri.ps of the rancheros and missions, with the exception of the 

 wheat." In 1~38, the field crops and gardens were again nearly destroyed. In 184G, there 

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

 States, as well as Calitbrniu. In IS.jo, to pass over les.ser visitations, there came one of the 

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

 of Monterey, (Smithsonian Report, 1858), between the middle of May and October, 1855, 

 "these insects extended them.selves over a space of the earth's surface, much greater than has 

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

 every val'ey of the .State of California, ranging fri ra the Pacific Ocean to the eastern base of 

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

 prairies lyinu; on the eastern slopes t)t the Rocky .Mountains; the dry mountain valleys of 

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

 those portions of Texas which resemble, in phy.-ical 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 tlie broadest part, eighteen degrees of longitude." The 

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

 compared the swaru s. when in flight, to dense snow-storms ; they consumed everything beibre 

 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 of 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 Rucky Mountains, and extending in places as far as the Missis- 

 sippi River ; throughout the States of .\linuesota, Nebraska and Kansas, the locusts were es- 

 pecially destructive. Ten years later, in the summer of 18GG, another noteworthy visitation 

 took place thriu-hout the same re:;ion. A correspondent of a Rock Island, 111., paper (see 

 Pructioil Eiitiiiiiiihujiiit, vol. ii.. page 3), thus desc ribes the plague in Nebraska : " The last day 

 of Auuust, 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 murh tliieker, but were only so from having crawled more into the open air to 

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

 directi n, 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 Hake, save that it passed by instead of falling. 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." 

 Anotlier writer fnnn 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 G5 acres of wheat in the last week of August, which looked fine, but it has 

 nearly all disappeared ; by to-morrow niuht 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 folhjwing 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, hut sicner dly tliey rush over the ground in confused swarms. At times they 

 rise h\'j.\\ in the air and eiicle round like gnats in the sunshine. At such times, I think, they 

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

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

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

 volume indeed, with similar accounts. 



The next jear lf<G7, and to .some extent also in 1868 the locusts reappeared through- 

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

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

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

 as we havi! been able to ascertain, pa.ssed to the eastward of the Mississijipi River. 



In 18(']!1 and 1870, the ravages of the locusts seem to have been confined on this side of 

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



