220 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



face of nature might have been described as covered by a 

 living veil. They consisted of two species, L. tatarica 

 and migratoria ,- the first is almost twice the size of the 

 second, and, because it precedes it, is called by the 

 Tartars the herald or messenger a . The account of 

 another traveller, Mr. Barrow, of their ravages in the 

 southern parts of Africa (in 1784 and 1797) is still more 

 striking : an area of nearly two thousand square miles 

 might be said literally to be covered by them. When 

 driven into the sea by a N.W. wind, they formed upon 

 the shore for fifty miles a bank three or four feet high, 

 and when the wind was S. E. the stench was so powerful 

 as to be smelt at the distance of 150 miles 5 . 



From 1778 to 1780 the empire of Marocco was terribly 

 devastated by them, every green thing was eaten up, not 

 even the bitter bark of the orange and pomegranate escap- 

 ing a most dreadful famine ensued. The poor were 

 seen to wander over the country deriving a miserable sub- 

 sistence from the roots of plants; and women and children 

 followed the camels, from whose dung they picked the in- 

 digested grains of barley, which they devoured with avi- 

 dity : in consequence of this, vast numbers perished, and 

 the roads and streets exhibited the unburied carcases of 

 the dead. On this sad occasion, fathers sold their chil- 

 dren, and husbands their wives c . When they visit a 

 country, says Mr. Jackson, speaking of the same empire, 

 it behoves every one to lay in provision for a famine, for 

 they stay from three to seven years. When they have 

 devoured all other vegetables, they attack the trees, con- 

 suming first the leaves and then the bark. From Moga- 



* Travels, i. 348. b Travels, &c. 257. 



e Southe}'s Thalaba, i. 171. 



