NOTES, &c.' 



THE title of the following disquisition admonishes the reader, 

 that he is not to expect a perfect analysis of a subject environed 

 by so many difficulties, and that we cannot avoid some obscurity, 

 and much repetition. The irregularity and promiscuous character 

 of our notes, observations and experiments, will render it still more 

 difficult to observe a lucid order. 



As we are not the first who have essayed this difficult problem, 

 a due respect for our predecessors requires us to notice their im- 

 pressions. 



The first account we have found, is from the state of Massachu- 

 setts, where every thing remarkable or interesting has been recorded 

 for the benefit of the past, present and time to come. It is to be 

 found in a work entitled New England's Memorial, written by 

 Nathaniel Moreton, in 1669. He witnessed an ascension of the 

 locust in 1663. He says very little of its character, but mentions 

 an ancient tradition of the native Indians, which associated the 

 ascension with the appearance of pestilential diseases. Both reason 

 and experience shew that there can be no natural connexion be- 

 tween two occurrences, that must either be the offspring of imagi- 

 nation or accidental coincidence. 



The next in chronological order is to be found in a memorandum, 

 left by the Reverend Andrew Sandel, Rector of the Sweedish Con- 

 gregation, at Philadelphia, dated 1715. He scarcely alludes to 

 the character of the insect, but states a fact known to all countries 

 where the larger varieties of the cicadas or locusts are known 

 that the natives use them as an article of diet. Doctor Pocock, 

 and other travellers through .ZEgypt, mention the Gryllus Migra- 

 torius as a common article of consumption. 



In Dosley's Annual Register for 1767, we have a more particu- 

 lar account by that excellent naturalist, Mosa Bartram, of Penn- 



