3 86 On the American Locust. 



and dogs eat them. Birds of various kinds are also 

 fond of them. 



The inhabitants of our country also collect the lo- 

 custs, and apply them to different purposes. The 

 Cheerake, and other Indians, collect them immediately 

 after they have emerged from the earth, and after frying 



them, bring them to their tables, as a delicate dish. 



As they abound in oil, advantage has been taken of this 

 circumstance, to make soap of them. To this use the 

 locusts have often been converted in New- Jersey, and 

 other parts of the Union. And when we consider the 

 innumerable swarms of these insects which often appear 

 in the country (every year, I think, in some part or 

 other of the United- States), and the great facility with 

 which they may be collected, even by children, it is ra- 

 ther surprising that the locusts are not more employed 

 than they are in the manufactory of soap, &c. Might 

 not their oil be applied to making of candles? — I ap- 

 prove of the economy of the Indians in eating them. 

 That which is so highly agreeable to such a variety of 

 different species and families of animals, can hardly be 

 unpalatable to man. 



The opinion that caterpillars are " the first product 

 of the eggs of the locust ;" or, at least, the opinion, that 

 there is somehow a necessary connection between the 

 appearance of these larvae, and the disappearance of the 

 locust, seems to be pretty general in the United- States. 

 It is, indeed, a fact, that vast swarms of different species 

 of caterpillars often infest the forests and gardens of the 

 country, the year immediately succeeding that in which 





