LOCUST. 137 



year 1748, were evidently some straggling 

 cletatchments from the vast flights which in that 

 year visited many of the inland parts of the Eu- 

 ropean Continent. 



The ravages of Locusts in various parts of the 

 world, at different periods, are recorded by numer- 

 ous authors, and a summary account of their prin- 

 cipal devastations may be found in the works of 

 Aklrovandus. Of these a few shall be selected as 

 examples. Thus, in the year 5Q3 of the Christian 

 era, after a great drought, these animals appear- 

 ed in such vast legions as to cause a famine in 

 many countries. In 677 Syria and Mesopotamia 

 were overrun by them. In 852 immense swarms 

 took their flight from the Eastern regions into the 

 West, flying with such a sound that they might 

 have been mistaken for birds: they destroyed all 

 vegetables, not sparing even the bark of trees and 

 the thatch of houses; and devouring the corn so 

 rapidly as to destroy, on computation, an hundred 

 and forty acres in a day: their daily marches or 

 distances of flight were computed at twenty miles; 

 and these were regulated by leaders or kings, who 

 flew first, and settled on the spot which was to be 

 visited at the same hour the next day by the whole 

 legion: these marches were always undertaken at 

 sunrise. These Locusts were at length dm en by 

 the force of winds into the Belgic ocean, and being, 

 thrown back by the tide and left on the shores, 

 caused a dreadful pestilence by their smell. In 

 1271 all the corn-fields of Milan were destroy- 

 ed; and in the year 133Q all those of Lombardy. 



