270ii INSECT MISCELLANIES. 



stench was so powerful as to be perceptible at the 

 distance of a hundred and fifty miles*. 



The account given by Jackson of their prog'ress 

 and final destruction in northern Africa is precisely 

 similar. Before the plague, in 1799, the face of the 

 country from Mogador to Tangier was covered with 

 them and ravaged, as well as the whole region from 

 the confines of the Sahara ; but on the other side 

 of the river El Kos not one was to be seen, though 

 there appeared nothing to prevent them from flying 

 over. The water of the river seemed to be a barrier 

 to their progress, for they were proceeding north- 

 ward until they arrived at its banks, when they im- 

 mediately turned to the east ; and in consequence all 

 the country north of El Araiche remained unravaged, 

 and abundant in grain, pulse, and fruits, exhibiting a 

 very striking contrast to the desolation of the adja- 

 cent district. The usual fate awaited this desolating 

 swarm : a violent hurricane drove them in a cloud 

 into the Western Ocean, and the shore was ren- 

 dered so noxious by their carcasses, that it is be- 

 lieved to have been the cause of a pestilence which 

 followed t- 



Hasselquist, the disciple of Linnseus, who went 

 to the east expressly to study its natural history, tells 

 us, that the " locust is not formed for travelling over 

 the sea ; it cannot fly far, but must alight as soon 

 as it rises ; for one that came on board us, a hundred 

 certainly were drowned. We observed in the months 

 of May and June a number of these insects coming 

 from the south, and directing their course to the 

 northern shore ; they darken the air like a thick 

 cloud : but scarcely have they quitted the shore, when 

 they, who a moment before ravaged and ruined the 

 country, cover the surface of the sea with their dead 



* Travels in S. Africa, p. 257. 

 ■j- Travels in Morocco, p. 54. 



