MIGRATORY LOCUST. 389 



casts came out of Walachia into Transylvania through the usual 

 inlets, and took possession of a tract of land in the neighbourhood 

 of Clausberry, near three miles in length, where it was not possible 

 to save the millet and Turkish wheat from these devourers. I am 

 of opinion that no instance of this kind will occur in our history, 

 except what some old men remember, and what we have experi- 

 enced ; at least there is no account that any locusts came hither 

 which did not die before they laid their eggs : however this is a 

 known fact ; that about forty years ago, some swarms came hither 

 ,. imt of Walachia, and did vast damage wherever they settled, but 

 either left this country before the end of summer, or died by the 

 inclemency of the weather." 



As an appendix to the foregoing account, it is added by a corres- 

 pondent from Vienna, that " a considerable number of locusts had 

 also come within twenty leagues of that city, and that one coluum 

 of them had been seen there, which was about half an hour's 

 journey in breadth ; but of such a length that, after three hours, 

 though they seemed to fly fast, one could not see the end of the 

 column." 



We have before observed, that the locusts which fell in several 

 parts of England, and in particular in the neighbourhood of the 

 metropolis, in the year 1748, were evidently some straggling de- 

 tachments from the vast flights which in that year visited many of 

 the inland parts of the European Continent. 



The ravages of locusts in various parts of the world, at different 

 periods, are recorded by numerous authors, and a summary account 

 of their principal devastations may be found in the works of Al- 

 drovandus. Of these a few shall be selected as examples. Thus, 

 in the year 593 of the Christian era, after a great drought, these 

 animals appeared in such vast legions as to cause a famine in many 

 countries. In 677, Syria and Mesopotamia were over-run 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 



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