﻿78 NINTH ANNUAL REPORT 



■ with thinned and wealvened ranks, and it will probably take many years ere they 

 become so prodijiioiisly multiplied ajjain, and are enabled by favorable conditions to 

 pusli so far east as tliey did in the year 1874. They did some harm at their restinjf 

 places on the way, but in a large number of instances they rose after their brief halts,' 

 without doinj]; serious injury. Nor can I learn of any instances where these swarms 

 that left our territory deposited e^^s. Had the winds been adverse to their northwest- 

 ern course, and obliufed them to remain in the country where they hatched, I believe 

 that the bulk, if not all of them, would, nevertheless, have perished before laying 

 fggs-— [Rep. 8, p. 108. 



Information gathered during the past year shows conclusively 

 that the insects which left the Mississippi Valley in 1875 did reach 

 into British America. The Winnepeg Standard of August 19, 1876, 

 as quoted by Professor Whitman, says : 



The locusts which hatched in Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska, in an area of 250 

 miles from east to west, and 300 miles from north to south, took flight in June, and 

 invariably went northwest, and fell in innumerable swarms upon the regions of British 

 America, adjoining Forts Pelly, Carlton and Ellice, covering an area as large as that 

 they vacated on the Missouri River. They were reinforced by the retiring column from 

 Manitoba, and it seemed to be hoping against hope that the new swarms of 1876 would 

 not again descend upon the settlements in the Red Rtver valley. Intelligence was 

 received here that the insects took flight from the vicinityof Fort Felly on the 10th of 

 July, and then followed a fortnight of intense suspense. 



Professor G. M. Dawson, of Montreal, writes: "You may be in- 

 terested in knowing that the northward flying swarms in 1875 pene- 

 trated a considerable distance into the region west of Manitoba, while 

 most of the insects hatching in the latter Province went southeast- 

 ward when winged, and that large numbers got at least as far east as 

 the Lake of the Woods." In an interesting paper in the Canadian 

 Waturalist, on the "Appearance and Migrations of the locusts in 

 Manitoba and the N. W. Territories in the Summer of 1875," Professor 

 Dawson further gives many other valuable records, some of which, as 

 bearing on the question under consideration, I quote entire, as they 

 will hardly bear condensing : 



From the reports now received from Manitoba and various portions of the North- 

 west Territory, and published in abstract with these notes, it would appear that during 

 the Summer of 1S7.J two distinct elements were concerned in the locust manifestation. 

 First, the insects hatching in the province of Manitoba and surrounding regions, from 

 eggs left by the western and northwestern invading swarms of the previous autumn ; 

 second, a distinct foreign host, moving, for the most part, from south to north. The 

 locusts are known to have hatched in great numbers over almost the entire area of 

 Manitoba, and westward at least as far as Fort Ellice on the Assineboine river (long. 

 101° 20'), and may probably have been produed, at least sporadically, in other portions 

 of the central regions of the plains ; though in the Summer of 1874, this district was 

 nearly emptied to recruit the swarms devastating Manitoba and the Western States, 

 and there appears to have been little if any influx to supply their place. Still further 

 west, on the plains along the base of the liocky Mountains, from the 40th parallel to 

 the Red Deer river, locusts are known to have hatched in considerable numbers— but 

 of these more anon. 



lliitcliing began in Manitoba and adjacent regions in favorable localities as early as 

 May 7th, but does not seem to have become general till about the 15th of the month, 

 and to have continued during the latter part of May and till the ir)th of June. * * * 



The destruction of crops by the growing insects, in all the settled regions was very 

 great, and in many districts well nigh complete. The exodus of these broods began 

 in the early part of July, but appears to have been most general during the middle and 

 latter part of that month, and flrst of August. The direxjtion taken on departure was, 

 with very little exception, southeast or south. It is to be remarked, that as there does 



