PHASES OF NATURE AROUND PRETORIA. 



71 



visited early in the month of May by a prodigious swarm 

 of locusts (Pachytylus migrat oroides) *. Travellers from 

 the coast had passed through these devastating insect 

 hordes, which apparently were working their way up 

 from the Cape Colony. On the morning of May llth 

 our attention had been directed to myriads of locusts 

 flying near the hills, and some few stragglers were 



LOCUST-SWARM IN PRETORIA. 



found in the town; but shortly after noon the air was 

 darkened, as swarms only to be computed by billions 

 came with a rushing sound over our heads and across 



* The traveller Mohr met with similar swarms of probably the same locust 

 on the banks of the Vaal River in 1869 (' To the Victoria Falls of the 

 Zambesi,' p. 94). 



