170 LOCUST. 



immense swarms took their flight from the 

 eastern regions into the west, flying with 

 such a sound that they might have been 

 mistaken for birds ; they destroyed all vege- 

 tables, not sparing even the bark of trees 

 and the thatch of houses; and devouring 

 the corn so rapidly as to destroy, on compu- 

 tation, an hundred and forty acres in a day : 

 their daily marches, or distances of flight, 

 were computed at twenty miles; and these 

 were regulated by leaders or kings, who flew 

 first, and settled on the spot which was to be 

 visited at the same hour the next day by the 

 whole legion: these marches were always 

 undertaken at sun-rise. The Locusts were 

 at length driven by the force of the wind 

 into the Belgic ocean, and being thrown 

 back by the tide and left on the shores, 

 caused a dreadful pestilence by their smell. 

 In 1271, all the corn-fields of Milan were 

 destroyed ; and in the year 1339, all those 

 of Lombardy. In 1541, incredible hosts 

 afflicted Poland, Walachia, and all the ad- 

 joining territories, darkening the sun with 

 their numbers, and ravaging all the firuits of 

 the earth.— Dr. Gregory, &c. 



