146 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO VEGETATION. 



of tlie destructive powers of locusts, and these accounts are 

 fully confirmed by the testimony of numerous travellers in 

 Asia and Africa, some of whom have been eye-witnesses of 

 the devastations of these insects. Among the later accounts, 

 that contained in Olivier's " Travels " does not seem to have 

 been quoted by English writers. The following is a free trans- 

 lation of the passage. Olivier, at the time of writing it, was 

 in Syria. " After a burning south wind had prevailed for some 

 time, there came, from the interior of Arabia and from the 

 southern parts of Persia, clouds of locusts, whose ravages in 

 these countries are as grievous and as sudden as the destruction 

 occasioned in Europe by the most severe hail-storm. Of these 

 my companion, M. Brugieres, and myself were twice witnesses. 

 It is difficult to describe the effect produced on us by the sight 

 of the whole atmosphere filled, on all sides, to a vast height, 

 with a countless multitude of these insects, which flew along 

 with a slow and even motion, and with a noise like the dashing 

 of a shower of rain. The heavens were darkened by them, 

 and the light of the sun was sensibly diminished. In a moment 

 the roofs of the houses, the streets, and all the fields were com- 

 pletely covered with these insects, and in two days they almost 

 entirely devoured the foliage of every plant. Fortunately, 

 however, they continued but a short time, and seemed to have 

 emigrated only for the purpose of providing for a continuation 

 of their kind. In fact, nearly all of them which we saw on 

 the next day were paired, and in a day or two afterwards the 

 ground was covered with their dead bodies."* These were 

 not the still more celebrated and destructive migratory locusts 

 (Locusta 7nig"ratoria), but consisted of the species called Acry- 

 dium pereg-rinum. 



Although the ravages of locusts in America are not followed 

 by such serious consequences as in the Eastern continent, yet 



as contained in the Bible and elucidated by the accounts of historians and 

 travellers, the reader is referred to the article locust in the learned and instructive 

 •work of my father, entitled "The Natural History of the Bible, by Thaddeus 

 Mason Harris." Svo. Boston: 1820. 



**01ivier, Voyage dans I'Empire Ottoman, I'Egypte et la Perse. Tom. II. p. 

 424. 



