VOL. XVI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 319 



By these observations the middle of the eclipse ought to have been about 

 1 ih. 19m. P.M. at Nuremberg : the duration will be 3h. 51m.; and the total 

 darkness ih. 46m. The longitude of Nuremburg has been formerly stated at 

 J 1 degrees from London, and since found to be so, by observations of the last 

 eclipse of the sun July 2, l684, which made it 444-m. of time. So that the 

 middle of this eclipse at London should have been lOh. 344-m. which from the 

 observation of Mr. Hevelius had been formerly concluded lOh. 35m. 



Account of an extraordinary Swarm of Grasshoppers* near Avignon, in Lan- 

 guedoc. Communicated by Mr. Justell, R.S.S. N° 182, p. 147. 

 These insects are undoubtedly of a peculiar species, although they appear in 

 nothing different from the common sort ; but they take flight like birds, which 

 is particular to them. They are about an inch in length, and of a grey colour. 

 The last year the earth in some places was covered 4 fingers thick with them, in 

 the morning before the heat of the sun was considerable ; but as soon as it be- 

 gan to be hot, they took wing, and fell upon the corn, eating up both leaf and 

 ear, and that with such expedition, by reason of their great number, that in 

 three hours they would devour the corn of a whole field ; after which they again 

 took wing ; and their swarms were so thick, that they covered the sun like a 

 cloud, and were whole hours in passing. They flew against the wind, and went 

 over the castle, which is very high, and seized on another field of corn, which 

 they destroyed like the former. After having eaten up the corn, they fell upon 

 the vines, the pulse, the willows, and even the hemp, notwithstanding its great 

 bitterness. About the end of August they ceased flying, and copulated, and 

 the female stuck her tail into the hard earth, where she cast a foam, and made 

 with it in the ground a hole as large as that of a goose quill, and about an inch 

 long, wherein she laid her eggs, which are of the size of millet seed ; there 

 would be sometimes 50 of these eggs in a hole, which are so covered over with 

 the same earth, that the water does not get in. After this, all these insects 

 died and stunk very much. They began this year to hatch in the month of 

 April, and some are not yet hatched. In March we thought of destroying 

 their eggs, which lie not above a finger's breadth in the earth, and we took of 

 them 180 quintals, being 9 tons : it had been well if we had thought of this 

 expedient sooner. Since their hatching, they have taken above 15 tons of the 

 young grasshoppers, which are not yet larger than flies. There are yet a multi- 

 tude that have escaped us, because they are in the corn, which is too forward 



• It is impossible to determine the particular species of locust (or grasshopper, as it is here termed) 

 whose ravages are described in the present paper. 



