On the Locust of North- America. 59 



All kinds of wood, as well forest as orchard, were 

 darted by them. I think they began with the Sassa- 

 fras (Laurus Sassafras), this being a soft wood, and 

 generally they made choice of the second or third 

 year's shoot. 



NOTE. 



The earliest notice that I have been able to find 

 concerning the Locusts, is that by Nathaniel Morton, 

 in his work entitled New-EnglancPs Memoriall, Sec. 

 printed at Cambridge, in Massachusetts, in the year 

 1669. Speaking of a sickness which, in 1633, car- 

 ried off many of the whites and Indians, in and near 

 to Plimouth (Plymouth), in Massachusetts, he says, 

 " It is to be observed, that the Spring before this 

 Sickness, there was a numerous company of Flies, 

 which were like for bigness unto Wasps or Bumble- 

 Bees, they came out of little holes in the ground, and 

 did eat up the green things, and made such a con- 

 stant yelling noise as made all the woods ring of 

 them, and ready to deaf the hearers ; they were not 

 any of them heard or seen by the English in the 

 Country before this time : but the Indians told them 

 that sickness would follow, and so it did very hot in 

 the months of June, July and August of that Sum- 

 mer," viz. 1633. He says, " towards Winter the 

 sickness ceased ;" and that it was " a kinde of a pes- 

 tilent Feaver." New-England's Memoriall, &.c. p. 

 90 and 91. Editor. 



