THE GRASSHOPPER KIND. 25 



with their numbers. In some places they were 

 seen lying dead heaped upon each other four feet 

 deep ; in others, they covered the surface like a 

 black cloth : the trees bent beneath their weight ; 

 and the damage which the country sustained ex- 

 ceeded computation. In Barbary their numbers 

 are formidable, and their visits are frequent. In 

 the year 1724, Dr Shaw was a witness in that 

 country of their devastations. Their first appear- 

 ance was about the latter end of March, when 

 the wind had been southerly for some time : in 

 the beginning of April, their numbers were so 

 vastly increased, that in the heat of the day they 

 formed themselves into large swarms, which ap- 

 peared like clouds, and darkened the sun. In 

 the middle of May they began to disappear, re- 

 tiring into the plains to deposit their eggs. In 

 the next month, being June, the young brood 

 began to make their appearance, forming many 

 compact bodies of several hundred yards square ; 

 and afterwards marching forward, climbed the 

 trees, walls, and houses, eating every thing that 

 was green in their way. The inhabitants, to 

 stop their progress, laid trenches all over their 

 fields and gardens, filling them with water. Some 

 placed large quantities of heath, stubble, and 

 guch like combustible matter, in rows, and set 

 them on fire on the approach of the locusts. But 

 all this was to no purpose ; for the trenches were 

 quickly filled up, and the fires put out by the vast 

 number of swarms that succeeded each other. A 

 day or two after one of these was in motion, 

 others, that were just hatched, came to glean 



