THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN- LOCUST IN_ 1882. 17 
well to give the facts in reference to several interviews that I had with 
old settlers in reference to the movements and breeding of the migra- 
tory locust in this Northwest Territory. The first of these interviews 
was with Mr. William S. Gladstone, an ex-employé of the Hudson Bay 
Company, who first came into the country in the year 1845, and was sta- 
tioned at Edmonton House. He stated that in the year 1843 some locusts 
were hatched as far north as that place, and also at several subsequent 
periods, but he did not remember dates. Could not be positive as to the 
directions of their flights, but knows that they did fly away. Once or 
twice they were quite numerous, but did no damage, as. there was no 
chance for them to do so, there being no farming done in the country at 
the time. ; 
During the summers of 1874 and 1875, locusts were quite numerous 
throughout all the region in the country around and between Forts Me- 
Leod and Walsh. They hatched all over, even as far north as the Red 
Deer and beyond. They appeared to come from the east, and to leave 
towards the south and southwest. These were the movements as no-— 
ticed on the St. Mary’s River at old Forts Hoop-up and Slide-out, trading- 
posts. No special notice was taken of them at this time, as every one 
then in the country was occupied in traffic with the Indians, and had 
no time to watch grasshoppers. The country away from these trading- 
posts, too, was wild and unknown to whites and not safe to travel 
through, hence the little known in reference to matters foreign to trad- 
ing with savages. Since the mounted police came into the country, 
every season more and more of this wilderness became known and 
traversed, until at present there are but few localities unexplored. 
Mr. Gladstone’s observations in reference to the habits of the loeust 
are substantially the same as those we made while the insect was with us. 
The prevailing winds are from the west and southwest, and the 
climate is more mild as the mountains are approached; the cause of 
this feature being the influence of the “Chinook” winds that at various 
times during winter are wafted across the mountains from the Pacifie 
coast, and also the sheltering influence of the pine and spruce forests 
as well as of the mountains themselves. 
Mr. Davis’s (of I. G. Baker & Co.) statements were substantially the 
Same as those of Mr. Gladstone; therefore it is unnecessary for me to 
repeat them here. He, too, was stationed at the same localities, viz., 
Hoop-up and Slide-out. 
Since the spring, or rather summer, of 1877, no locusts were seen in 
the vicinity of Fort McLeod, ¢. e., not in numbers sufficiently great to 
cause alarm or even to damace garden vegetation, nor were any noticed 
in the air as far as I was able to learn. 
From these data and from what observations we made individually, 
I would infer that at present the Northwest is comparatively free from’ 
this plague. 
It is unnecessary for me to enter into a lengthy discussion here as 
9676 
9 
dad 
