316 BERTHA'S VISIT TO HER 



30th. Colonel Travers was not present at 

 our conversation about the locusts ; but on its 

 being alludecTto this evening, he told us that he 

 had once seen a flight of those creatures which 

 contained such an incredible multitude, that no- 

 thing could have persuaded him of the fact, if 

 he had not been an eye-witness to it himself, 



Instead of going by sea to India, he went 

 overland, that is, through part of Turkey, Arabia, 

 and Persia ; and, in 1811, he happened to be at 

 Smyrna, in Asia Minor, when this extraordinary 

 flight of locusts occurred. He says that for 

 several days stragglers had been passing, but at 

 last the main body came, and in such a dense 

 column, as not indeed to obscure the sun, but to 

 produce a curious quivering light. He thinks 

 the lines in which they appeared to fly were 

 about one foot asunder, and that locust followed 

 locust at the distance of three feet. They came 

 in a steady, undeviating direction from south to 

 north, and continued to pass, without any dimi- 

 nution of their numbers, for three successive 

 days and nights. The breadth of this prodigious 

 column was at least forty miles, for a messenger 

 who had been dispatched by the consul to the 

 pasha of Sardis, passed through them all the way, 

 both going and returning. Caroline immediately 

 produced the map of Asia Minor, and we found 

 that Sardis is fully that distance from Smyrna, 



