282 " VOET-GANGEKS" LOCUSTS. 



thickness, and myriads were crushed and maimed by our 

 wagon and cattle. Toward nightfall they crawled on to the 

 bushes and the shrubs, many of which, owing to their weight 

 and numbers, were either bowed down to the ground or broken 

 short off. They were of a reddish color, with dark mark- 

 ings, and, as they hung thus suspended, they looked like clus- 

 ters of rich fruit. As they hopped along the path and 

 among the grass, their appearance was no less curious and 

 striking. 



These " voet-gangers" are justly dreaded by the colonists, 

 as no obstacle seems capable of staying their progress. They 

 are said to cross stagnant pools — ay, even the Orange Eiver 

 ■ — ^by the leading multitudes throwing themselves heedlessly 

 into the water, where they are drowned, thus affording the 

 survivors a temporary bridge. Fires, which are lighted in 

 their path in the hope of staying their course, are extinguish- 

 ed by their myriads. "All human endeavors to diminish 

 their numbers," says a recent author, " would appear like at- 

 tempting to drain the ocean by a pump." 



As we traveled on next morning we encountered the locust 



itself, and in such masses as literally to darken the air. 



• 



" Onward they came, a dark continuous cloud 

 Of congregated myriads numberless, 

 The rushing of whose wings was as the sound 

 Of a broad river, headlong in its course 

 Plunged from a mountain summit, or the roar 

 Of a wild ocean in the autumn storm, 

 Shattering its billows on a shore of rocks." 



Our wagon, or any other equally conspicuous object, could 

 positively not be distinguished at the distance of one hundred 

 paces. In a particular spot, within the circumference of a 

 mile they had not left a particle of any green thing. The 

 several columns that crossed our path in the course of the 

 day must each have been many miles in length and breadth. 

 The noise of their wings was very great, not unlike that 



