﻿158 SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT 



appearance and ravages of these insects. Omitting the figurative 

 parts, it is accurate and graphic beyond measure : 



"A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of 

 thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains; a great 

 people and a strong ; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall 

 be any more after it, even to the years of many generations. A fire 

 devoureth before them ; and behind them a flame burneth; the land 

 is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate 

 wilderness ; yea, and nothing shall escape them. The appearance of 

 them is as the appearance of horses ; and as horsemen, so shall they 

 run. Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they 

 leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as 

 a strong people set in battle array. Before their face the people shall 

 be much pained : all faces shall gather blackness. They shall run 

 like mighty men ; they shall climb the wall like men of war ; and 

 they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break 

 their ranks. * * * They shall run to and fro in the city ; 

 they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses ; 

 they shall enter in at the windows like a thief." 



Those who sufiered from and witnessed the vast army that cast a 

 blight over so large a portion of our Western country last year ; or 

 who passed by rail, during the better part of two days, through a per- 

 fect storm of these insects, which frequently impeded or stopped the 

 train by their crushed bodies reducing the traction — will concede 

 that Joel's picture is not overdrawn, and that, though written over 

 5,500 years ago, it might have been inspired from many parts of North 

 America in the year 1874. The illustration (Fig. 32) which I give 

 herewith, is reduced from one published last August in the Scien- 

 ■tiiic American^ and, though not accurate in structural detail, con- 

 veys a very good idea of the appearance of a swarm invading a wheat- 

 field. 



FOOD PLANTS. 



The Rocky Mountain Locust may be said to be almost omnivo- 

 rous. Scarcely anything comes amiss to the ravenous hosts when 

 famished. They will feed upon the dry bark of trees or the dry lint 

 of seasoned fence planks ; and upon dry leaves, paper, cotton and 

 woolen fabrics. They have been seen literally covering the backs of 

 sheep, eating the wool ; and whenever one of their own kind is weak 

 or disabled, from cause whatsoever, they go for him or her with can- 

 nibalistic ferocity, and soon finish the struggling and kicking unfortu- 

 nate. They do not refuse even dead animals, but have been seen feast- 



