102 NORTH AMERICAN INSECTS. 



the breadth of one of those swarms was forty miles, and 

 their length so great as to occupy four hours in passing over 

 the city. So great, also, was the density of this cloud of 

 Grasshoppers that it totally intercepted the solar light, so 

 that when they flew low the air was so darkened that one 

 person could not see another at the distance of twenty 

 paces."* 



The account of a traveler, Mr. Barrow, of their ravages 

 in the southern parts of Africa in 1797, is still more strik- 

 ing. He says : " An area of nearly two thousand square 

 miles might be said to be literally covered by them. When 

 driven into the sea by a northwest wind, they formed, for 

 fifty miles upon the shore, a bank three or four feet high, 

 and when the wind was southeast their stench was so 

 powerful as to be smelled at the distance of a hundred and 

 fifty miles." 



In 1825 the Eussian empire was again alarmed by the 

 appearance of an innumerable quantity of Grasshoppers, 

 of which I had the pleasure (if pleasure it may be called) 

 of being an eye-witness.f 



I left the city of Moscow in the beginning of the month 

 of April, 1825, in order to visit the Crimea, the Caucasus, 

 and the countries lying between the Black and Caspian 

 seas. Passing through the well-cultivated States (called 

 in Russia Governments) of Moscow, Orel, Resan, Char- 

 kow, Kiew, and Woronesch, the whole population of these 

 States expressed in a lamentable manner their fear of per- 

 ishing by famine on account of the enormous quantity of 



* See " Introduction to Entomolog}', by Kirby and Spence. Lon- 

 don, 1818." 



t See Verstich einer Darstellung des naturlicher Reichthnms, der 

 Grosse und Bevolkerung dei- Russischen Lander jenseits des Caucasus, 

 von B. Jaeger, Mitgliede jnehrer gelehrten Gesellshqften. Leipzig, 

 C. H. Hartmann, 1830. — Description of the Natural Riches, Extent, 

 ana Population of the Russian Provinces beyond the Caucasus, by 

 B. Jaegek, Member of several Learned Societies. Leipzig, 1830. 



