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voraciousness and desire to be on the move that I had been so often 

 accustomed to see iu them on previous occasions. After joining the 

 team and proceeding up the valley towards the divide separating the 

 Snake River plains from the Camas prairie, we encountered still other 

 scattered swarms of this same locust. Some of these swarms were 

 quite small, while others were of respectable size. All of them were 

 confined to the valley or lower slopes of the foothills and showed a 

 tendency to keep as close as possible to water or green vegetation. 

 Just before reaching the divide a small swarm of them was encount- 

 ered which appeared quite active, and which were engaged iu deposit- 

 ing eggs. These were gathered on a low gravelly flat which covered 

 possibly one-half an acre in extent. Only a small per cent, of the lo- 

 custs thus gathered here were actually engaged in depositing eggs, and 

 but few eggs had thus far been placed. 



Beyond the divide, i. e , on the prairie side, the locusts became quite 

 general in their dispersion, but were by no means abundant until we 

 ^arrived upon the prairie proper and came to the vicinity of fields of 

 grain. Here they were everywhere, and their work of destruction be- 

 came apparent on all sides. Fields of grain had been stripped to the 

 bare soil in places, while the prairie grasses were greatly damaged. 

 Even the weeds of the country occasionally showed their ravages. 

 Some wheat-fields still had the bare stalks standing rigid, looking like 

 so many porcupine quills stuck perpendicularly into the ground. Occa- 

 sionally a field would be passed where but little damage had occurred. 

 In but few instances, however, was the injury complete, for almost 

 every farmer in the valley, so far at least as* we visited it, had a por- 

 tion of some or all of his crops spared by the ravaging hordes. 



After establishing ourselves in the valley we soon began our work of 

 investigation by inquiry and personal observation, and in this manner 

 in two days had obtained a pretty thorough knowledge of the hopper, 

 both for the past and present, with some notions as to its possible 

 future also. We ascertained that it first made its appearance in 

 numbers sufficiently great to attract the attention of the settlers about 

 four years ago, when some injury was done to gardens, and here and 

 there to fields of grain about the edges along road-sides. The follow- 

 ing year larger areas were infested and more extensive inroads made 

 into the cultivated crojis. Even at this time no especial attention was 

 paid to the enemy, for all the farmers and ranchmen had an abundance 

 and did not miss the comparatively small per cent, which fell to the 

 hoppers. Last year was a very dry on^, and the greatly increased 

 hordes of the locust soon worked their way through field after field, 

 which they left almost bare. This, together with the scarcity of wild 

 grasses upon the meadows and foot-hills, occasioned partly by the 

 drouth and partly by the ravages of the locusts, very quickly attracted 

 the attention of the settlers. Then, too, to make the ravages appear 

 more complete, these depredations were followed by a very severe 



