LOCUSTIDiE — LOCUSTS. 105 



Barbot, after mentioning a famine that happened in North 

 Guinea in 1681, which destroyed many thousands of the in- 

 habitants of the Continent, and forced many to sell them- 

 selves for slaves, to only get sustenance, says these fearful 

 famines are also some years occasioned by the dreadful 

 swarms of Locusts, which come from the eastward and spread 

 over the whole country in such ])rodigious multitudes, that 

 they darken the very air, passing over head like miglity 

 clouds. They leave nothing that is green wheresoever they 

 come, either on the ground or trees, and fly so swiftly from 

 place to place, that whole provinces are devastated in a very 

 short time. Barbot adds, terrific storms of hail, wind, and 

 such like judgments from Heaven, are nothing to compare 

 to this, which when it happens, there is no question to be 

 made but that multitudes of the natives must starve, 

 having no neighboring countries to supply them with corn, 

 because those round about them are no better husbands 

 than themselves, and are no less liable to the same calami- 

 ties.^ 



Of a swarm, which in the year 1693 covered four square 

 miles of ground, a German author has made the following 

 estimate. Observing that, when he trod on the ground, at 

 least three were crushed, and that in a square German meas- 

 ure, less than an English foot, ten were destroyed ; and after 

 determining the number of these square measures in the 

 four miles, he concluded that ninety-two billions, one hun- 

 dred and sixty millions of Locusts were congregated on the 

 surface. This is altogether a very moderate calculation, for 

 not only is their number more compact in breadth, but they 

 are often piled knee-high on the earth. ^ 



In 1724, Dr. Shaw was a witness of the devastations of 

 these insects in Barbary. He has given us a description of 

 their habits.^ For four successive years, from 1744 to 1747, 

 Locusts ravaged the southern provinces of Spain and Por- 

 tugal.* In a letter from Transylvania, dated August 22d, 

 1747, a graphic description is given of two vast columns 

 that overswept that country. "They form," says the writer, 

 " a close compact column about fi^fteen yards deep, in breadth 

 about four musket-shot, and in length about four leagues; 



1 Churchill's Col. of Voy. and Trav., v. 33. 



2 Ins. (Murray, 1838), ii. 188. 3 md,, ii. 197. 

 4 Gent. Mag., Ixx. 989. 



10* 



