1835.] A SWARM OF LOCUSTS. 327 



After our two days' tedious journey, it was refreshing to see 

 in the distance the rows of poplars and willows growing round 

 the village and river of Luxan. Shortly before we arrived at 

 this place, we observed to the south a ragged cloud of a dark 

 reddish-brown colour. At first we thought that it was smoke 

 from some great fire on the plains ; but we soon found that 

 it was a swarm of locusts. They were flying northward ; 

 and with the aid of a light breeze, they overtook us at a rate 

 of ten or fifteen miles an hour. The main body filled the air 

 from a height of twenty feet, to that, as it appeared, of two 

 or three thousand above the ground; "and the sound of 

 their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses 

 running to battle " ; or rather, I should say, like a strong 

 breeze passing through the rigging of a ship. The sky, 

 seen through the advanced guard, appeared like a mezzo- 

 tinto engraving, but the main body was impervious to sight ; 

 they were not, however, so thick together, but that they 

 could escape a stick waved backwards and forwards. When 

 they alighted, they were more numerous than the leaves in 

 the field, and the surface became reddish instead of being 

 green : the swarm having once alighted, the individuals flew 

 from side to side in all directions. Locusts are not an un- 

 common pest in this country : already during this season, 

 several smaller swarms had come up from the south, where, 

 as apparently in all other parts of the world, they are bred 

 in the deserts. The poor cottagers in vain attempted by 

 lighting fires, by shouts and by waving branches to avert 

 the attack. This species of locust closely resembles, and 

 perhaps is identical with the famous Gryllus migratorius of 

 the East. 



, We crossed the Luxan, which is a river of considerable 

 size, though its course towards the sea-coast is very imper- 

 fectly known : it is even doubtful whether, in passing over 

 the plains, it is not evaporated and lost. We slept in the 

 village of Luxan, which is a small place surrounded by 

 gardens, and forms the most southern cultivated district in 

 the Province of Mendoza ; it is five leagues south of the 

 capital. At night I experienced an attack (for it deserves no 

 less a name) of the Benchuca^ a species of Reduvius, the 

 great black bug of the Pampas. It is most disgusting to 

 feel soft wingk^ss insects, about an inch long, crawling 

 over one's body. Before sucking they are quite thin, but 

 afterwards they become round and bloated with blood, and 

 in this state are easily crushed. One which I caught at 



