THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN LOCUST IN 1882. £9 
with steep rocky and clayey walls in which are to be seen numerous 
signs of spontaneous combustion among the coal seams. 
This condition of affairs is to be met with in the neighborhood of the 
mouth of the Bow River. Now all traces of tree and bush have faded 
from the scene; all around is a black, barren wilderness, rendered more 
desolate at night by the shrill howlings of the gaunt and hungry coyotes 
that linger about our camping ground. The river now has widened 
out to be quite a large stream, in most parts navigable to fair-sized 
steamers; and its banks are turreted and grooved into fantastic forms, 
reminding one of the great bad-lands of the Missouri River region. 
All along, wherever sufficient shelter is afforded, and also at many 
places where there is no shelter of any kind, on the cliffs are stuck to 
the rocks and stowed away in nooks and crevices countless numbers of 
he little mud nests of the cliff swallows (Petrochelidon lunifrons). These 
remind one of a collection of inverted funnels. All their occupants 
had already flown away to more genial climes, or ‘dived down into 
the mud,” not to appear again until next spring, as some superstitious 
individuals would try to make us believe. Among these are also to be 
seen the nests of two other swallows, viz., the Bank Swallow (Cotyle 
riparia) and the Barn Swallow (Hirundo horreorum). These two species 
were still lingering about in small numbers. Their nests were not 
nearly aS numerous as were those of the former species. All these 
swallows lived upon insects of various kinds, and judging from the 
great amount of excrement upon the rocks beneath the nests, they 
must have destroyed an incalculable number of them. Very likely 
half of these were locusts of the various species found in this country. 
This being the case I do not wonder at the scarcity of insect life along 
this river and in the country for many miles on either side. Besides 
swallows, great numbers of various kinds of hawks and falcons had 
their rudely-constructed eyries perched upon rocks, cliffs, and often on 
side-hills, while every tree of sufficient size contained from one to three 
or four of these rude structures. 
The country lying back from the river on each side is high, dry, and 
generally level, and varies but little in its general appearance and char- 
acter for hundreds of miles from west to east, and two to three hundred 
miles from north to south. Of course, at several points the general 
level of these great plains has been disturbed by internal forces, and 
small mountain groups are the result. Numerous small depressions 
have also been made throughout the country, too, and these are now 
occupied by alkaline lakes. 
Soon after leaving Fort McLeod the country to the northward was 
all burnt over. This fire extended from Willow Creek to the Little 
Bow River. On the south side fires had already swept over all the 
country from the mouth of the St. Mary’s to far below the Little Bow. 
Again, from the Bow to the Red Deer all was burnt off, as well as a 
greater portion of the country lying east of the mouth of Seven Per- 
