TRIFID.'E. 165 



a more singular phenomenon ! These animals were generated 

 suddenly in the Northern States of America and almost 

 covered two or three hundred miles of country. They all 

 moved nearly in one direction, and when they were inter- 

 cepted by furrows in ploughed land they fell into them in such 

 numbers as to form heaps. They sought shelter in the grass, 

 a hot sun being fatal to them. They disappeared suddenly 

 about the close of June and beginning* of July.' " 



" The colonies or armies of these worms are usually 

 discovered when the worms are a third grown and about 

 half an inch long. A particular spot in a field of grass 

 or grain is found to be thronged by them, almost every stalk 

 having one or more of them on it, and those which are not 

 feeding are crawling rapidly about with an impatient aspect 

 as though they were in a great hurry to get somewhere." 



" They all keep together like an army of soldiers and 

 usually advance in a straight line, not swerving from their 

 course to avoid hills, hollows, buildings, or any obstacle. A 

 stream of running water even does not cause them to deflect 

 from the line of their march ; they crowd into it, although 

 very few of them chance to be carried by its current to the 

 opposite side. Millions of them are drowned, their dead 

 bodies clogging and damming up the stream in places 

 below, producing by their decay a stench in the atmosphere 

 of the whole locality which is noisome and intolerable. In 

 their march they travel faster at some times than at others, 

 advancing at the rate of from two to six rods in an hour. 

 Thus instances have occurred in which an army of these 

 worms, two or three miles wide, has advanced six to seven 

 miles, leaving the track behind it as desolate as though fire 

 had swept over it." 



" They avoid the rays of the sun ; hence during the day 

 they crawl under stones and sticks as closely as they can 

 crowd themselves together, and under swarths of grass or 

 grain, or even into the ground. They rest in such places 

 during the heat of the day and come out towards sunset to 



