INNUMERABLE SWARMS OF LOCUSTS. 285 



The locust which causes such havoc to vegetation in Af- 

 rica is said to be a different species to that common to Asia, 

 where also, though perhaps not to the same extent, it com- 

 mits great ravages. 



The Cape Colony has been particularly subject to this 

 dreadful scourge, which is invariably followed by famine. 

 The inroads of the locusts are periodical ; according to Prin- 

 gle, about once every fifteen years. In 1808, after having 

 laid waste a considerable portion of the country,* they dis- 

 appeared, and did not return till 1824:. They then remain- 

 ed for several years, but in 1830 took their departure. 



The proper home of the locust is yet a mystery. Expe- 

 rience only tells us that they come southward from the 

 north. They rarely appear in any number except in years 

 of abundance. 



Almost every day during several months we encountered 

 innumerable swarms of these insects, and it was not till we 

 had crossed the Orange River that we fairly lost sight of 

 them. 



* Barrow, who wrote about this period, and who gives a remarkable 

 uccount of the devastations of these insects, probably alludes to this 

 very circumstance when he says, 



" The present year is the third of their continuance, and their in- 

 crease has far exceeded that of a geometrical progression whose ratio 

 is a million. For ten years preceding their present visit the colony 

 had been entirely freed from them. Their last departure was rather 

 singular. All the full-gi'own insects were driven into the sea by a 

 tempestuous northeast wind, and Avere afterward cast upon the beach, 

 where, it is said, they formed a bank of three or four feet high, which 

 extended from the mouth of the Bosjeman's River to that of the Becka, 

 a distance of near fifty EngHsh miles ; and it is asserted that when 

 this mass became putrid, and the wind was at southeast, the stench 

 was sensibly felt in several parts of Sneuwberg. * * * -jhe larvee 

 at the same time were emigrating to the northward. The column of 

 these imperfect insects passed the houses of two of our party, who as- 

 sured me til at it continued moving fonvard, without any interruption 

 except by night, for more than a month." 



