306 THE INSECT WORLD. 



The locusts were swept with great brooms into ditches, in which 

 they were then burnt ; not, however, before they had ruined the 

 whole country. Locusts showed themselves at the same time in the 

 empire of Morocco, where they caused a fearful famine. The poor 

 were to be seen wandering on all sides, digging up the roots of 

 vegetables, and eagerly devouring camels' dung, in hopes of finding 

 in it a few undigested grains of barley. 



Barrow and Levaillant, in their travels through Central Africa, 

 speak of similar calamities having happened many times between 

 1784 and 1797. They add that the surface of the rivers was then 

 hidden by the bodies of the locusts, which covered the whole 

 country. 



According to Jackson, in 1739 they covered the whole surface of 

 the ground from Tangiers to Mogador. All the region near to the 

 Sahara was ravaged, whilst on the other side of the river El Klos 

 there was not one of these insects. When the wind blew they were 

 driven into the sea, and their carcases occasioned a plague which 

 laid Barbary waste. 



India and China often suffer from these destructive insects. In 

 1735 clouds of locusts hid from the Chinese both the sun and moon. 

 Not only the standing crops, but also the corn in the barns and the 

 clothes in the houses were devoured. 



In the south of France locusts multiply sometimes so prodigiously 

 that in a very short time many barrels may be filled with their eggs. 

 They have caused, at different periods, immense damage. It was 

 chiefly in the years 1613, 1805, 1820, 1822, 1824, 1825, 1832, and 

 1834, that their visits to the south of France were most formidable. 



Me'zeray relates that in the month of January, 1613, in the reign 

 of Louis XIIL, locusts invaded the country around Aries. In seven 

 or eight hours the wheat and crops were devoured to the roots over 

 an extent of country of 15,000 acres. They then crossed over the 

 Rhine, and visited Tarascon and Beaucaire, where they ate the vege- 

 tables and lucerne. They then shifted their quarters to Aramon, to 

 Monfrin, to Valabregues, &c., where they were fortunately destroyed 

 in great part by the starlings and other insect-eating birds, which 

 flocked in innumerable numbers to this game. 



The consuls of Aries and of Marseilles caused the eggs to be col- 

 lected. Aries spent, for this object, 25,000 francs, and Marseilles 20,000 

 francs. Three thousand quintals of eggs were interred or thrown into 

 the Rhone. If we count 1,750,000 eggs per quintal, that will give 

 us a total of 5,250,000,000 of locusts destroyed in the egg, which 

 otherwise would have very soon renewed the ravages of which the 



