150 A FLIGHT OF LOCUSTS. 



were covered by these insects ; and in two days they had 

 nearly devoured all the leaves of the plants. Happily, 

 they lived but a short time, and seemed to have migrated 

 only to reproduce themselves and die ; in fact, nearly all 

 those we saw the next day had paired, and the day fol- 

 lowing the fields were covered with their dead bodies." 



A district visited by one of these swarms appears after- 

 wards to have been burned up by fire. They devour every 

 green thing, every blade of grass, and leave the ground 

 bare, withered, and dead. Possessing the faculty of in- 

 flating themselves with air, they are capable of accomplish- 

 ing long flights at the rate of six leagues a day, laying 

 waste all vegetation in their course. Woe to the country- 

 side where they alight ! The husbandman watches their 

 approach, as they come up from afar in innumerable 

 bands, with aching heart, for he knows that the day of 

 ruin is at hand. Wherever he turns he sees the sky 

 black with their legions, and the soil seems to groan under 

 the burden. Their millions of wings fill the air with a 

 hoarse sound, like that of waters tumbling down a rocky 

 precipice. The branches of the trees give way beneath the 

 swarming thousands ; and in a few hours, over an area of 

 many miles, all the life of the verdure has disappeared, — • 

 the wheat is gnawed to its very roots, the green boughs are 

 stripped of their foliage. When nothing remains, the 

 depredators rise, as if in obedience to some preconcerted 

 signal, and wing their way to some fresh land of plenty, 

 leaving behind them gloom, and desolation, and ruin. 



The negroes of Soudan endeavour to divert the destruc- 

 tive inroad by the most savage yells. In Hungary artil- 



