2/56 THE INSECT TLAGUES OF THE TROPICAL WORLD 



and fully to justify Southey's description in the epic of 

 Thalaba : — 



" Onward they came — a dark continuous cloud 

 Of congregated myriads, numberless ; 

 The rushing of whose wings was as the sound 

 Of a broad river headlong in its course, 

 Plunged from a mountain summit ; or the roar 

 Of a wild ocean in the autumn storm, 

 Shattering its billows on a shore of rocks ! " 



The waggon, or any other equally conspicuous object, could 

 not be distinguished at the distance of one hundred paces. 

 In a particular spot within the circumference of a mile they 

 had not left a particle of any green thing. The noise of 

 their wings was very great — not unlike that caused by a gale of 

 wind whistling through the shrouds of a ship at anchor. It 

 was interesting to witness at a distance the various shapes and 

 forms that these columns assumed, more especially when cross- 

 ing mountain-ranges. At one time they would rise abruptly in 

 a compact body, as if propelled by a strong gust of wind ; then, 

 suddenly sinking, they would disperse into smaller battalions, 

 not unlike vapours floating about a hill-side at early morn, and 

 when slightly agitated by a breeze; or they would resemble 

 huge columns of sand or smoke, changing their shape every 

 minute. During their flight numbers were constantly alight- 

 ing — an action which has not inaptly been compared to the 

 falling of large snow-flakes. It is, however, not until the ap- 

 proach of night that the locusts encamp. Woe to the spot they 

 select as a resting-place ! The sun sets on a landscape green 

 with all the luxuriance of tropical vegetation ; it rises in the 

 morning over a region naked as the v/aste of the Sahara ! 



The tropical plague of the cockroaches has been introduced 

 into England; but, fortunately, the giant of the family, the Blatta 

 gigantea, a native of many of the warmer parts of Asia, Africa, 

 and South America, is a stranger to our land : and the following 

 truthful description of this disgusting insect gives us every 

 reason to be thankful for its absence: — "They plunder and 

 erode all kinds of victuals, dressed and undressed, and 

 damage all sorts of clothes, especially such as are touched with 

 powder, pomatum, and similar substances ; everything made of 

 leather ; books, paper, and various other articles, which if they 



