37 



jury. Their eggs produced such imineDse swarms the following spring that they destroyed 

 everything that had been sown throughout the settlement, and famine ensued. In 18C9 they 

 again visited the country, but too late to do much harm. The season following, however, 

 they destroyed most of the growing crops. In 1872 immense hordes of these winged pests 

 airain visited a part of the country about the beginning of August The country west of 

 Headingly escaped, and generally the wheat was not much injured, but they played sad havoc 

 with the garden.^. Nothing was sown the following spring throughout the infested district, 

 but throughout the western settlements a large crop was grown and saved." 



From the same source we have obtained the following particulars respecting the 

 ravages of the Locust in different parts of the Province : — 



" Thj South. — From West Lynne (Pembina) northward as far as Scratching Kiver 

 the oats and barley have been entirely destroyed, and the wheat partially. 



" Palestine. — The latest reports from this settlement confirm the accounts that the 

 settlement is laid waste. 



"Manitoba Lake. — The shores of this lake are strewn three feet in many places with 

 dead grasshoppers, the wind having driven them into the lake, where they were drowned 

 and cast ashore. 



" The Boyne Settlement. — They are very thick here, and have completely destroyed 

 the oats and barby, and about half ruined the wheat. 



"Portage la Peairie. — From Poplar Point to the Portage the fields are swarming 

 with grasshoppers, which have devoured the crops. Scarcely anything has escaped. 



" Rat Creek. — In this neighbourhood it is reported that the crops of Kenneth Mc- • 

 Kenzie, Hugh Grant and others, are being destroyed, and that the former had commenced 

 cutting his oats and barley for fodder rather than let the pests take all. 



"RoCKWuOD. — The crops in this settlement have suffered severely. Oats and barley 

 completely destroyed, and wheat badly injured. 



" Woodland.— Most of the settlers in this neighbourhood are entirely cleaned out. 



" County of Provencher. — All the crops along the Red River, from Pembina to Stink- 

 ing River, have been eaten up, excepting, in some instances, a portion of the wheat and 

 potatoes have escaped. 



" Winnipeg — The gardens in this city, and the oats and barley in the neighbourhood, 

 are being destroyed. During the evenings, at the going down of the sun, they seek the board 

 fences and sides of houses in such numbers that in many cases it is impossible to distinguish 

 the colour of the houses, or the material of which they arc built." 



As yet we do not know whether the Locust ravages are wont to extend over the great fer- 

 tile region to tiie north-west of Manitoba — that magnificent agricultural region drained by the 

 Saskatchewan River ; we hope, and wc are strongly inclined to think, that the plague, if notice- 

 able at all, is there trifling in character and moderate in extent. Should it be otherwise, 

 should that '■ fertile belt " be as subject to the.sc visitations as the States to the south of it 

 unhappily are, it must prove a great hindrance to its rapid settlement. If, on the other hand, 

 it possesses an immunity not shared in by the Western States, it will certainly draw from 

 them, before many years are over, ami as soon as railway facilities are afforded for transporta- 

 tion of goods and produce, a very large portion of those settlers who are now eaten out of 

 house and home. We fully expect to see the tide of immigration which for a few years paat 

 has been setting so strongly towards the plains of Kansas and Nebrask;i, turned towards our 

 own mqye highly-favoured, even though more northern regions of Assiniboine and Saskatchewan. 



Description of the Insect. 



Let us turn now to a description of the insect respecting whose powers of destruction we 

 have heard so much. As we have already remarked, there is very little difference in appear- 

 ance between our common " grasshopper " and the famine-producing Locu.'it of the West. 

 They both belong to the same genus {Cahrptenux) of the family Acrydida; and of the order of 

 Orthoptcra —straight-winged insects. The Acrydid», or Locusts, are distinguished from 

 their kindred, the true grasshoppers, by the following characteristics : — The former have 

 siiort antenna' (or feelers), never exceeding the body in length ; the latter have very long 

 thread-like antennae. The tarsi, or feet, of the former are three-jointed ; of the latter four- 

 jointed. The female of the former has the tip of the abdomen furnished with four very short 



