774 



A HISTORY OF 



side of the larger legs. The shield that 

 covers the back is greenish; and the upper 

 side of the body brown, spotted with black, 

 and the under side purple. The upper wings 

 arc brown, with s;n:tll dusky spots, with one 

 larger at the tips; the under wings are more 

 transparent, and of a light brown, tinctured 

 witii green, but there is a dark cloud oi spots 

 near the tips. This is that insect that lias 

 threatened us so often with its visitations ; 

 and that is so truly terrible in the countries 

 where it is bred. There is no animal in the 

 creation that multiplies so fast as -these, if the 

 sun be warm, and the soil in which their eggs 

 are deposited be dry. Happily for us, the 

 coldness of our climate, and the humidity of 

 our soil, are no way favourable to their pro- 

 duction ; and as they are but the animals of 

 a year, they visit us and perish. 



The Scripture, which was written in a 

 country where the locust made a distinguish- 

 ed feature in the picture of nature, has given 

 us several very striking images of this animal's j 

 numbers and rapacity. It compares an army, 

 where the numbers are almost infinite, to a 

 swarm of locusts: it describes them as rising 

 out of the earth, where they are produced ; 

 as pursuing a settled march to destroy the 

 fruits of the earth, and co-operate with Divine 

 indignation. 



When the locusts take the field, as we are 

 assured, they have a leader at their head, 

 whose flight they observe, and pay a strict 

 attention to all his motions. They appear, 

 at a distance, like a black cloud, which, as 

 it approaches, gathers upon the horizon, and 

 almost hides the light of the day. It often 

 happens that the husbandman sees this im- 

 minent calamity pass away without doing 

 him any mischief; and the whole swarm pro- 

 ceed onward, to settle upon the labours of 

 some less fortunate country. But wretched 

 is the district upon which they settle : they 

 ravage the meadow and the pasture ground ; 

 strip the trees of their leaves, and the gar- 

 den of its beauty: the visitation of a tew 

 minutes destroys the expectations of a year; 

 and a famine but too frequently ensues. In 

 their native tropical climates they are not so 

 dreadful as iti the more southern parts of 

 Europe. There, though the plain and the 

 forest be stripped of their verdure, the power 



of vegetation is so great, that an interval of 

 three or four days repairs the calamity : but 

 our verdure is the livery of a season; and we 

 must wait till the ensuing spring repairs (he 

 damage. Besides, in their long flights to this 

 part of the world, they are famished by the 

 tediousness of their journey, and are there- 

 lore more voracious wherever they happen 

 to settle. But it is not by what they devour 

 that they do so much damage, as by what 

 they destroy. Their very bite is thought to 

 contaminate the plant, and to prevent its 

 vegetation. To use the expression of the 

 husbandman, they burn whatever they touch, 

 and leave the marks of their devastation for 

 two or three years ensuing. But if they be 

 noxious while living, they are still more so 

 when dead; for wherever they fall, they in- 

 fect the air in such a manner, that the smell 

 is insupportable.. Orosius tells us, that in 

 the year of the world 3800, there was an in- 

 credible number of locusts which infected 

 Africa; and, after having eaten up every 

 thing that was green, they flew ofi, and were 

 drowned in the African sea; where they 

 caused such a stench, that the putrefying 

 bodies of hundreds of thousands of men could 

 not equal it. 



In the year 1690, a cloud of locusts was 

 seen to enter Russia in three different places; 

 and from thence to spread themselves over 

 Poland and Lithuania, in such astonishing 

 multitudes, that the air was darkened, and 

 the earth covered with their numbers. In 

 some places they were seen lying dead, heap- 

 ed 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 num- 

 bers are formidable, and their visits are fre- 

 quent. In the year 1724, Dr. Shaw was a 

 witness in that country of their devastations. 

 Their first appearance was about the latter 

 end of March, when the wind had been 

 southerly for some time. In the beginning of 

 April, their numberswere so vastly increased, 

 that in the heat of the day they formed them- 

 selves into large swarms, which appeared 

 likt' clouds, and darkened the sun. In the 

 middle of May they began to disappear, re- 

 tiring into the plains to deposite their eggs. 



