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proportion of one to a million of those which still 

 maintained their career. I observed also that the 

 wings which fell were proper tionably much more nu- 

 merous than the bodies ; which made me think that 

 Providence having supplied these creatures with four 

 wings each, the additional pair could be used in those 

 cases where fatigue, or pressure, or other contingencies, 

 might deprive them of that pair which appeared to be 

 of stronger fabric. Our only means of defence against 

 this devastating host was to sound gongs and tom-toms: 

 this means was resorted to very generally, and a most 

 obstreperous symphony was performed, which had the 

 desired effect of driving the unmusical barbarians to 

 some distant land. Had they alighted in our vicinity 

 nothing could be expected but a universal spoliation of 

 all that was eatable : the harvest of a whole province 

 Qould scarcely afford a single meal to such fearful 

 numbers." 



In 1748 a swarm of locusts came within twenty 

 leagues of Vienna. One swarm was half an hour's 

 journey in the width of the column ; but after three 

 hours' rapid flight the termination of its length could 

 not be seen. In 593 the devastations of the locusts 

 occasioned a famine in many countries. In 677 Syria 

 and Mesopotamia were over-run with them ; and in 852 

 a swarm visited the West. Their daily marches were 

 computed at twenty miles, with intervals of rest. They 

 seemed to be headed by a captain and commander, 

 and what a host ! The winds drove them into the 

 Belgic ocean; and the tide having cast their dead 

 bodies on shore, a dreadful pestilence was the conse- 

 quence. In 1271 all the corn fields about Milan were 

 destroyed, and in 1339 those of Lombardy. In the 

 summer of 1815 we observed considerable quantities 

 of dead locusts on the shore at Yarmouth, cast up by 



