204 THE KNTOMOLOGIST. 



flake, save that it passed by instead of falling. The number 

 was beyond imagination: the air was literally full of them, 

 and continued so till late in the afternoon; countless millions 

 passed on, leaving other countless millions covering the earth 

 and devouring the vegetation.' Another writer from Kansas 

 states that — ' Yesterday, September 10th, the locusts made 

 their appearance here, and are devouring everything green. 

 They almost darken the sun in their flight. I put in sixty-five 

 acres of wheat in the last week of August, which looked fine, 

 but it has nearly all disappeared; by to-morrow night there 

 will not be a spear left. Early-sown wheat will be totally 

 destroyed.' From the description given by another writer in 

 Kansas, we may quote the following graphic account: — 

 * There is something weird and unearthly in their appearance, 

 as in vast hosts they scale walls, housetops, and fences, 

 clambering over each other with a creaking, clashing noise. 

 Sometimes they march in even, regular lines, like hosts of 

 pigmy cavalry, but generally they rush over the groimd in 

 confused swarms. At times they rise high in the air, and 

 circle round like gnats in the sunshine. At such times I 

 think they are caught by currents of our prevailing 

 westerly winds, and are thus distributed over vast tracts of 

 country.' The foregoing extracts will give our readers some 

 little idea of the mode of appearance and the destructive 

 powers of the locusts in the west. We might fill pages, — a 

 volume, indeed, with similar accounts." 



The following year, and again in 1868, the}' appeared to 

 be much less destructive in Central Iowa and North Western 

 Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas, Texas, and Utah, but did not 

 cross the Mother of Waters, as the great Mississippi has been 

 called. Whether this great river formed a natural barrier to 

 their advance, or whether the eastern limit has been attained, 

 it is impossible to say; but it is certain that hitherto the 

 eastern states have escaped this mighty scourge. 



In Mr. Riley's " Seventh Annual Report on Noxious and 

 other Insects Inhabiting the State of Missouri," published 

 during the present year, still further details are given, acconi- 

 ])anied by maps, showing the exact limits of the devastation. 

 I cannot afford more space to that part of the subject, but 

 will conclude with a sunnnary of the lbod-i)lanls, which shows 

 that it is almost omnivorous: — 



