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south, not deviating from their course, and forming a 

 compact body. This is rather remarkable, seeing that 

 the larvae of this insect are not gregarious, but insulated 

 from their kind. Bonelli of Turin mentions a similar 

 phenomenon. The multitude was immense, and their 

 direction also from north to south. At night the flowers 

 were completely clothed with them. Their numbers 

 diminished towards the end of March. In the Memoirs 

 of the Academy of Turin a flight of the same kind is 

 stated to have been observed towards the close of the 

 last century. 



The migration of the locust is an event of terrible 

 importance in the balance of nature, and the fate of 

 kingdoms may be involved in it. On the wings of 

 one of the locust family the Arabs discern some of 

 their own characters, and a locust is thus made to 

 address Mahomet : " We are the army of the great 

 God; we produce ninety-nine eggs: if the hundred 

 were completed, we should consume the whole earth, 

 and all that is in it." The prophet Joel describes 

 their devastation in glowing yet correct language : 

 " The land is as the garden of Eden before them, and 

 behind them a desolate wilderness." * The myriads 

 of these creatures (gryllus migratorius] which some- 

 times congregate together, and the extent of devasta- 

 tion they produce, would scarcely appear credible were 

 the facts not well authenticated. In August, 1747, a 

 swarm of locusts entered Transylvania, and such were 

 their numbers that they occupied four hours in their 

 passage over the place : the width of the swarm was 

 some hundreds of fathoms, and its density such as to 

 exclude daylight and darken the sun ; so that people 

 could not see each other at a distance of twenty paces. 

 The guards of the Red Tower fired at them to prevent 

 * Joel, ii. 3. 



