xliv 



" After our two days' tedious journey, it was refreshing to see 

 in the distance the rows of poplars and willows growing round 

 the village and river of Luxan. Shortly before we arrived at this 

 place, we observed to the south a ragged cloud of a dark reddish- 

 brown colour. At first we thought it was smoke from some great 

 fire on the plains, but we soon found that it was a swarm 

 of locusts. They were flying northward, and with the aid of a 

 light breeze they overtook us at a rate of ten or fifteen miles an 

 hour. The main body filled the air from a height of twenty 

 feet, to that, as it appeared, of two or three thousand above the 

 ground ; ' and the sound of their wings was as the sound 

 of chariots of many horses running to battle,' or rather, I should 

 say, like a strong breeze passing through the rigging of a ship. 

 The sky, seen through the advanced guard, appeared like a 

 mezzotinto engraving, but the main body was impervious to 

 sight ; they were not, however, so thick together but that they 

 could escape a stick waved backwards and forwards. When they 

 alighted they were more numerous than the leaves in the field, 

 and the surface became reddish instead of being green : the 

 swarm having once alighted, the individuals flew from side to 

 side in all directions. Locusts are not at all an uncommon pest 

 in this country; already, during this season, several smaller 

 swarms had come up from the south, where, as apparently in all 

 other parts of the world, they are bred in the deserts. The poor 

 cottagers in vain attempted by lighting fires, by shouts, and by 

 waving branches, to avert the attack. This species of locust 

 closely resembles, and perhaps is identical with, the famous 

 Gryllus migratorius of the East." . . . 



" We slept in the village of Luxan, which is a small place 

 surrounded by gardens, and forms the most southern cultivated 

 district in the province of Mendoza ; it is five leagues south 

 of the capital. At night I experienced an attack (for it deserves 

 no less a name) of the Benchuca, a species of Reduvius, the great 

 black bug of the Pampas. It is most disgusting to feel soft 

 wingless insects, about an inch long, crawling over one's body. 

 Before sucking they are quite thin, but afterwards they become 

 round and bloated with blood, and in this state are easily 

 crushed. One which I caught at Iquique (for they are found in 

 Chili and Peru) was very empty. When placed on a table, and 

 though surrounded by people, if a finger was presented, the bold 



