INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 225 



east or to the west^. But this must be a mistaken no- 

 tion ; for those which Major Moor saw at Poonah, of 

 which I have given an account above'', must have come 

 due east. Mr, Jackson also noticed their course north 

 of the line to be towards the south '^ ; and Sparrman tells 

 us, that those south of the line migrate in the same di- 

 rection '^. 



I fear that Hasselquist's question, Could they not by 

 fright, or some other method, be turned from their 

 dreadful course, to steer for some river, and by that 

 means be obliged to destroy themselves^? must be an- 

 swered in the negative. All such experiments, it is to 

 be apprehended, would be about as effectual as send- 

 ing an army, with all the apparatus of war, to take the 

 field against them, as this author says is done in Asia, 

 where the Bashaw of Tripoli once raised a force of 

 4000 soldiers to fight the locusts, and very summarily 

 ordered all to be hanged who, thinking it beneath them 

 to waste their valour upon such pygmy foes, refused to 



join the party ^ 



I am, &c. 



^ Voyage to the Levant, p. 446-7. * See p. 218. 



'^ Travels, !ii. " Travels,]. SGd. 



f Travels, A55. '' Travels, 447. 



VOL. I. 



